Why move from the Midwest? Does the West Coast really need two Clarion workshops?
We did not go looking for a home on the west coast. In fact, early on, the board voted overwhelmingly to keep the workshop east of the Mississippi. Many schools were approached, including New York, MIT and other schools in Boston, Iowa, Philadelphia, Chicago. We did not begin to talk to San Diego until we’d reached a point at which it seemed we had no other options. To find ourselves finally with three possibilities this summer was a delightful surprise. Still the more we looked at San Diego, the more we found to like and those advantages eventually overwhelmed the disadvantage of a second west coast workshop. The enthusiasm at UCSD for Clarion and for science fiction was evident throughout negotiations. The offer that came in had broad support from faculty and administration, from literature and the sciences. So our decision was not simply a matter of finances. UC San Diego is one of the finest science schools in the world. Our students will have the opportunity to meet and talk with
