Norwescon 33 gives Clarion West additional scholarship for 2010

Here, let me just repeat the full story from Clarion West's website:

Clarion West will receive $3200 from Norwescon 33 to fully fund a scholarship for one of our 2010 writing workshop students. We'll select the scholarship recipient from among the eighteen applicants chosen to attend this summer's session of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. You can learn more about the workshop and the application process here. Incoming Clarion West Board Chair Kelley Eskridge and alumna Caren Gussoff ('08) will officially accept the donation during Norwescon 33's Awards Banquet, to be held on April 1, 2010.

“Scholarships don’t just give money--they give hope to people who might otherwise think they can’t afford the workshop experience," Eskridge said when she learned of the donation. "I’m enormously grateful to Norwescon 33 for their support of speculative fiction writers and readers, and for this generous gift of hope to a Clarion West student.” Senior Workshop Administrator Leslie Howle added that Norwescon 33's gift "will be deeply appreciated by the entire Clarion West community."

Norwescon is one of the largest regional science fiction and fantasy conventions in the US, and the site of the annual Philip K. Dick Award ceremony. Norwescon 33 is the thirty-third Norwescon. Background and registration information are available at www.norwescon.org.

I'm always thrilled when Clarion West gets another source of support, and I'm particularly thrilled when it comes from a group of people right in our neighborhood. CW has long had a close relationship with Potlatch, along with more distant relationships with Orycon, whose parent group also sponsors the Susan C. Petrey memorial scholarship fund; the group of several midwest conventions that sponsor the Gordon Dickson memorial scholarship fund; SF3, the group that puts on Wiscon, which last year gave Clarion West a challenge grant that got the ball rolling so that we could secure an even larger challenge grant from Amazon.com; the Lunarians, who put on  Lunacon and sponsor the Donald and Elsie Wollheim memorial scholarship. It's great to add Norwescon to that list.

Norwescon has provided a platform for Clarion West as an organization in the past, as well as featuring many of our alumni in their programming. We've had volunteers in common for years. This scholarship feels like an organic outgrowth of that relationship, and I'm as happy as a dog with two tails.