Viable Paradise is an annual one-week residential
writing workshop held each autumn on the island of
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
in
and is focused on
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...
.
The workshop began in 1997, as part of a science fiction convention presented by the Martha's Vineyard Science Fiction Association. After 1998, the convention was discontinued, but the workshop continued.
Present and past instructors include:
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Patrick James Nielsen Hayden (born Patrick James Hayden January 2, 1959), is an American science fiction editor, fan, fanzine publisher, essayist, reviewer, anthologist, teacher and blogger. He is a World Fantasy Award and Hugo Award winner ...
,
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Teresa Nielsen Hayden (born March 21, 1956) is an American science fiction editor, fanzine writer, essayist, and workshop instructor. She is a consulting editor for Tor Books and is well known for her weblog, ''Making Light''. She has also work ...
,
James D. Macdonald
James Douglas Ignatius Macdonald (born 1954) is an American author and critic who lives in New Hampshire. He frequently collaborated with his late wife Dr. Debra Doyle. He works in several genres, concentrating on fantasy, but also writing sci ...
,
Debra Doyle
Debra Doyle (November 30, 1952 – October 31, 2020) was an American author in multiple related fiction genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, for young adults and adults. Her works were co-written with her husband, James D. Mac ...
,
Steven Gould,
Laura J. Mixon,
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Lawrence Watt-Evans (born 1954) is one of the pseudonyms of American science fiction and fantasy author Lawrence Watt Evans (another pseudonym, used primarily for science fiction, is Nathan Archer).
Biography
Born in Arlington, Massachusetts, as ...
,
Elizabeth Moon
Elizabeth Moon (born March 7, 1945) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her other writing includes newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Her novel '' The Speed of Dark'' won the 2003 Nebula Award. Prior to her writing career, sh ...
,
Maureen McHugh
Maureen F. McHugh (born February 13, 1959) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer.
Career
McHugh's first published story was published as a ''Twilight Zone'' under a male pseudonym in 1988. It was followed by a pair of publication ...
,
James Patrick Kelly
James Patrick Kelly (born April 11, 1951 in Mineola, New York) is an American science fiction author who has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.
Biography
Kelly made his first fiction sale in 1975. He graduated magna cum laude from ...
,
Elizabeth Bear
Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky (born September 22, 1971) is an American author who works primarily in speculative fiction genres, writing under the name Elizabeth Bear. She won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2008 Hugo A ...
,
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...
,
John Scalzi
John Michael Scalzi II (born May 10, 1969) is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his ''Old Man's War'' series, three novels of which have been nom ...
,
Sherwood Smith
Sherwood Smith (born 1951) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer for young adults and adults. Smith is a Nebula Award finalist and a longtime writing group organizer and participant.
Smith's works include the YA novel '' Crown Du ...
,
Steven Brust,
Daryl Gregory
Daryl Gregory (born 1965) is an American science fiction, fantasy and comic book author. Gregory is a 1988 alumnus of the Michigan State University Clarion science fiction workshop, and won the 2009 Crawford Award for his novel ''Pandemonium''. ...
, and
Scott Lynch
Scott Lynch (born April 2, 1978) is an American fantasy author who wrote the '' Gentleman Bastard Sequence'' series of novels. His first novel, ''The Lies of Locke Lamora'', was purchased by Orion Books in August 2004 and published in June 2006 u ...
.
Past students include authors
Curtis C. Chen,
Julie C. Day,
Claire Humphrey
Clair or Claire may refer to:
*Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire
* Clair (surname)
Places
Canada
* Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska
* Clair Parish, New Brunswick
* Pointe-Claire, Q ...
,
N. K. Jemisin,
Marko Kloos
Marko Kloos is a German author of military science fiction and high fantasy. Born in Germany, Kloos lives and works in the United States.
Work
Kloos is best known for his ''Frontlines'' series of military science fiction novels. Featuring the p ...
,
Fonda Lee
Fonda Lee (born March 10, 1979) is a Canadian-American author of speculative fiction. She is best known for writing ''The Green Bone Saga'', the first of which, ''Jade City'', won the 2018 World Fantasy Award and was named one of the 100 Best Fa ...
,
Sandra McDonald
Sandra McDonald is an American science fiction and fantasy author.
She is a graduate of Ithaca College, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine. She also spent eight years as an officer i ...
,
Paul Melko
Paul Melko (born May 22, 1968) is an American science fiction writer whose work has appeared in ''Realms of Fantasy'', ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', ''Strange Horizons'', and '' Live Without a Net''.
His first professional story appeared in ''Real ...
,
David Moles
David Moles is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He won the 2008 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for his novelette "Finisterra," which was also a finalist for the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. He was a finalist for the 2004 ...
Margaret Ronald Greg van Eekhout
Greg van Eekhout is a science fiction and fantasy writer. His "In the Late December" (2003) was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and his middle-grade fantasy novel ''The Boy at the End of the World'' was nominated for the 2012 ...
, and
Fran Wilde
Dame Frances Helen Wilde (née Kitching, born 11 November 1948) is a New Zealand politician, and former Wellington Labour member of parliament, Minister of Tourism and Mayor of Wellington. She was the first woman to serve as Mayor of Wellingt ...
; and podcast editors and authors Serah Eley and
Mur Lafferty
Mur Lafferty (born July 25, 1973) is an American podcaster and writer based in Durham, North Carolina. She was the editor and host of ''Escape Pod (podcast), Escape Pod'' from 2010, when she took over from Steve Eley, until 2012, when she was rep ...
.
References
External links
*
What Is Viable Paradise
1997 establishments in Massachusetts
Organizations established in 1997
Creative writing programs
Martha's Vineyard
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