McNeese MFA Student Accepted into National Workshop

McNeese State University Master of Fine Arts student Ashlee Lhamon has been accepted into the 2018 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop at the University of California in San Diego.

Lhamon – one of 18 applicants selected for this national workshop – will spend an intensive six weeks on the UC San Diego campus reading, writing, working with professional writers and editors as well as her workshop colleagues.

Established in 1968, the workshop is specifically geared towards aspiring science fiction, fantasy and horror writers and is the oldest workshop of its kind in the United States. Notable graduates from the program include bestselling and award-winning authors Octavia Butler, Jeff VanderMeer, Kim Stanley Robinson, Cory Doctorow and Kelly Link. The recent critically acclaimed science fiction films “Arrival” (2016) and “Annihilation” (2018) were both based off works by Clarion graduates.

Originally from Alamogordo, New Mexico, Lhamon is currently a second-year graduate student in the MFA creative writing program.

“I have always wanted to be a science fiction writer,” she says. “But, first I knew I needed to master the basics. The McNeese MFA program has really helped me get to a place where I feel confident in the fundamentals of my writing and now I can focus on my niche. Professors Christopher Lowe, Amy Fleury, Keagan Lejeune and Dr. Scott Goins have all been so supportive and I owe so much to them and my fellow workshop mates.”

Lhamon has also been awarded a $2,200 Susan Petrey Memorial Scholarship by the Oregon Science Fiction Conventions Inc. to attend the workshop. The scholarship was established in honor of science fiction writer and Portland Science Fiction Society member Susan Petrey.