Fall 2018 Origami Birds Courtesy Sipho Mabona a Manual for the Morning
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The Seventh Week clarion west writers workshop • fall 2018 origami birds courtesy Sipho Mabona A MANUAL FOR the morning. I imagined it like this: Once sprout more roots, until all the books are I get the books, I'll stash them in every connected, forming a web, inciting so pocket, and when I run out of space in my much verbal arousal that the books start READING BOOKS clothes, I'll put them in bags and boxes breathing together in unison, and some and suitcases, as many as will fit in my car. even open up and bloom to let go of syl- Andrea Chapela CW '17 Back at home, I'll take every book out and labic spores charged with such narrative start piling them in my bedroom until I strength that they float through the room start building towers, taller and taller, until like fireflies, spinning around, landing on I need to build bridges to connect them, other books, reacting with each other until and I create such an infrastructure that the crosspollination is unbearable and the The other day, before I went to bed, I it swallows all the furniture and only the books start sprouting trunks, branches, was clicking away on the internet when bed remains. By then it'll be dark outside, leaves, and in a couple of hours my room I found the hundred books that every but before I go to bed I make sure to open is a forest, and I, still fast asleep, don't person should read before they die. I didn’t the window so that the air doesn’t grow even notice when the roots tangle around know most of them, and I started to won- stale with the smell of so much paper. I me and word flowers grow between my der what exactly I had been reading in the don’t foresee that the warmth of summer toes and the spores stick to the curve of last twenty years—so I looked through my comes into the room, softening the cov- each finger, encompassing me in a foliage bookshelf and discovered it stuffed with ers, reminding every book that they used cocoon, and there, finally, something really textbooks: more math than words. I went to be trees, and the books start spurting extraordinary takes place: I start absorb- looking online for more lists, but with ev- roots, and the roots grow and coil on the ing every word I haven’t read, that I would ery tab I opened, I found more novels and carpet, making intimate connections with never have had the time to read, and by short stories and poems that I had never other books: the roots of Salinger min- dawn my head is filled with stories and I’m heard of. I wrote down every book in every gling with Borges’, that twist on Tolstoy, awakened by the song of the first pair of language, and still the list kept growing. I that loop around Woolf, and Dante and origami larks that chirp from a nest near decided to go to the library first thing in Cervantes, and the books with more pages the window. UN MANUAL auto. Ya en casa, llevaría todos los libros al parte de la red y entonces de pura exci- dormitorio y los apilaría uno a uno para tación verbal, comenzarían a respirar al erigir torres conectadas por puentes que unísono, algunos se abrirían como flores PARA LEER formaran una infraestructura aglutinante, y soltarían esporas silábicas, cargadas de que engulliría todos los muebles excepto fuerza narrativa, que se alzarían por el El otro día, justo antes de acostarme descu- la cama. Para entonces sería tan tarde que cuarto como luciérnagas, darían vueltas, brí en internet una lista con los cien libros me entraría sueño y me echaría a dormir se posarían en otros libros, se fusionarían que hay que leer antes de morir. Como no arrullada por todas las historias. Pero antes, entre sí y, con tanta polinización, a los conocía la mayoría, me pregunté qué había para evitar que se enmoheciera el aire con libros les saldrían retoños y ramas y hojas leído en los últimos veinte años y como tanto olor a libro, dejaría la ventana abierta y troncos y en un par de horas formarían no estuve segura, fui a ver mi estantería para que pudiéramos respirar, olvidaría que un bosque a mi alrededor, pero dormida y la descubrí llena de manuales y libros el calor húmedo del verano entraría y se no me enteraría de nada aunque las raíces de texto: más fórmulas que palabras. Por posaría sobre los libros, ablandaría sus cu- me pasaran por encima y las flores me eso regresé a la computadora, tomé nota biertas, recordándole a cada uno que alguna crecieran entre los pies y las esporas se me y busqué más listas; pero en cada ventana vez fueron árboles y entonces no podrían pegaran a la piel, al cabello, a la curvatura descubría más novelas y cuentos y poemas evitar soltar raíces y las raíces crecerían y se de cada dedo y ya cubierta de todo ese que no conocía. Copié títulos de libros enrollarían en la alfombra a medio cubrir y follaje sucedería algo de verdad extraordi- en todos los idiomas, pero la lista crecía y por primera vez libros que eran desconoci- nario: comenzaría a absorber todo lo que crecía, así que decidí ir a la biblioteca a la dos entre sí se conectarían íntimamente: las no he tenido tiempo, ni tendré tiempo de mañana siguiente. Sacaría todos y cada uno raíces de Salinger se enredarían en Borges leer y gracias a ese proceso de osmosis, al de los libros hasta llenarme los bolsillos y, que se enredaría en Tolstoi, que se enre- amanecer, con la cabeza llena de libros, cuando ya no tuviera espacio en mi ropa, daría en Woolf y en Dante y en Cervantes, abriría los ojos cuando me despertara el seguiría empacándolos en bolsas y cajas porque los libros con más páginas echarían canto de las dos primeras alondras de ori- y maletas, tantas como cupieran en mi más raíces, y entonces cada libro formaría gami desde su nido cerca de la ventana. THE SEVENTH WEEK | FALL 2018 | PAGE 1 Continued from p. 1 What We Did Last Summer Andrea Chapela is photo by Rashida Scholz a Mexican writer photo by M. Huw Evans with a degree in chemistry from the UNAM (National Autonomous Uni- versity of Mexico) and an MFA in Spanish Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Andrea is an alumna of the Clarion West class of 2017, which she describes as the most intense and Week 1: Instructor Daniel Instructor Yoon Ha Lee interviewed by E. Lily Yu CW '13 wonderful experience of her life. It was Abraham CW '98 reads at the Wing Luke Museum before Week 3 at University Bookstore photo by Eric Harlow also the first time she wrote directly in photo by Eric Harlow English instead of self-translating. She was awarded the Michael & Elliot Alex- ander Scholarship. Andrea is currently a Madrid City Council Arts Fellow, working on an essay collection about scientific language. 2019 Winter One-Days Instructor Karen Joy Fowler at the Seattle Public Library, Week 5 January 27: Seanan McGuire Karen Joy Fowler's audience photo by Eric Harlow Tailored Stories for Tailored Markets photo by Eric Harlow A look at tailored markets and how to write what editors are looking for, stay- ing true to your own voice while meeting someone else's expectations. McGuire, winner of a 2016 Nebula, has been a finalist for the highest awards in the field and writes for many tailored markets. February 10: Daryl Gregory Running from Bears Ted Chiang, Instructor Karen Lord, Jon Lasser CW '16, Julia Sidorova CW and Caroline Yoachim CW '06 at the '09, and Tegan Moore CW '15 at the Practical techniques for creating compel- Week 4 party Week 1 & Locus Awards party ling stories focusing on characters who want something specific and fail to get it— Now that summer 2018 is beginning to recede in the rear-view mirror, we’d like to take a or find it's not what they needed after all. look back at all the fun we had this summer—when we weren’t frantically writing, that is. Gregory is an award-winning, Between June and July this year, our six wonderful Summer Workshop instructors held genre-mixing writer. His recent novel, six inspiring readings hosted by the University Bookstore and the Seattle Public Library. Spoonbenders, is a Nebula, Locus, and Community events, parties, and the Clarion West Write-a-thon made for a summer full World Fantasy Award finalist for 2018. of learning, laughter, and cheer. www.clarionwest.org/workshops/oneday/ Thanks for the memories, and see you all next year! 2019 Summer Workshop Readings June 25 July 2 July 9 July 16 July 23 July 30 Elizabeth Hand Stephen Graham Jones Amal El-Mohtar Ibi Zoboi Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan Ann Leckie photo credits: Stephen Graham Jones by Kevin Richard Schafer, Amal El-Mohtar by Jessica P. Wick, Jonathan Strahan by Cat Sparks PAGE 2 | THE SEVENTH WEEK | FALL 2018 A Farewell to the 2018 Six-Week Summer Workshop photo by Jae Steinbacher The class of 2018 had representatives from nine countries across five continents, and their writing reflected both their diversity and their passion for speculative fiction. We send them home with a fond farewell and look eagerly forward to their upcom- ing careers. "The workshop was for me a dream come true, and every waking moment in Seattle captured that old adage.