New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin announces an exciting new Odyssey Writing Workshop scholarship to help a horror writer with financial need attend the acclaimed, six-week residential program. Martin explains, “Odyssey has become legendary for the challenges it sets for students and the enthusiasm with which they meet those challenges. And all that writing, learning, critiquing, and sweat yields great results. Among Odyssey’s alumni are New York Times bestsellers, Amazon bestsellers, and award winners.”
The Miskatonic Scholarship will be awarded each year to a promising new writer of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, a type of fiction Martin loves and wants to encourage. The scholarship will cover full tuition, textbook, and housing. Martin says, “It’s my hope that this new scholarship will offer an opportunity to a worthy applicant who might not otherwise have been able to afford the Odyssey experience.”
A separate application is required to demonstrate financial need. A panel of three judges will select the winner from among the applicants who have demonstrated financial need, using the short story or novel excerpts sent with the workshop applications. Martin notes, “we are not looking for Lovecraft pastiches, nor even Cthulhu Mythos stories. References to Arkham, Azathoth, shoggoths, the Necronomicon, and the fungi from Yuggoth are by no means obligatory…though if some candidates choose to include them, that’s fine as well. What we want is the sort of originality that H. P. Lovecraft displayed in his day, something that goes beyond the tired tropes of werewolves, vampires and zombies, into places strange and terrifying and never seen before. What we want are nightmares new and resonant and profound, comic terrors that will haunt our dreams for years to come.”
Contact Odyssey Director Jeanne Cavelos (email jcavelos@odysseyworkshop.org ) for the Mistakonic application, which is due April 7.
Along with the new Mistakonic Scholarship, there are other financial assistance opportunities, scholarships, and one work/study position. For more information, visit www.odysseyworkshop.org/workshop.html.
