Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop is an annual

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

for

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writers. Since its origin in 1985, it has been held in Raleigh,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

; Bryn Mawr,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

; and most recently in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. Currently organized by Richard Butner, Sycamore Hill was started by John Kessel and Mark L. Van Name. It is an invitation-only workshop for established SF, fantasy, and slipstream writers. Attendees have included

Kelly Link Kelly Link (born July 19, 1969) is an American editor and writer. Mainly known as an author of short stories, she published her first novel, ''The Book of Love'' in 2024. While some of her fiction falls more clearly within genre categories, many ...

Carol Emshwiller Carol Emshwiller (April 12, 1921 – February 2, 2019) was an American writer of avant-garde short stories and science fiction who won prizes for her work including the Nebula Award to the Philip K. Dick Award. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her ...

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave science fiction, New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published wo ...

Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the ''Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's first ...

Connie Willis Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born December 31, 1945), commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than ...

Karen Joy Fowler Karen Joy Fowler is an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. Her work often centers on the 19th century, nineteenth century, the Woman, lives of women, and social alienation. She is best known as the author of the b ...

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His Debut novel, first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, ...

James Patrick Kelly James Patrick Kelly (born April 11, 1951) 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 the University of N ...

, Robert Frazier,

Ted Chiang Ted Chiang (; pinyin: ''Jiāng Fēngnán''; born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula Award, Nebula awards, four Hugo Award, Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and six Locus Award, ...

Benjamin Rosenbaum Benjamin Rosenbaum (born August 23, 1969) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction writer, game designer, and computer programmer. His stories and novels have been finalists for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Theodore ...

, and Don Webb, among many others. Butner has described the methodology used at Sycamore Hill: "We all sit in a circle. Critique starts to the author’s left and goes clockwise in order. You can talk for up to ten minutes about the story (no ad hominem stuff). There’s no cross talk during critique. At the very end, the author gets to respond at whatever length they desire." A collection of original stories from the 1994 workshop was published as the anthology ''Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology'', edited by John Kessel, Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner (

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

, 1996). It includes works by Richard Butner, Carol Emshwiller, Karen Joy Fowler, Robert Frazier, Gregory Frost, Alexander Jablokov, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel,

Nancy Kress Nancy Anne Kress (born January 20, 1948) is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella '' Beggars in Spain'' (1991), which becam ...

, Jonathan Lethem, Maureen F. McHugh, Michaela Roessner, Bruce Sterling, and Mark L. Van Name.

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. , he is the only person to have won a Hugo Award for Best Novel, Hugo Award and a Nebula Award for Best Novel, Nebula Award in List of joint ...

wrote about his experience at the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop in the essay "On Sycamore Hill." Scholars such as Michael Collins identify Card's Sycamore Hill experience as marking a critical "turning point" in his career. Sycamore Hill is known to have shaped several award-winning stories, and is featured in the acknowledgment pages of books like Ted Chiang's ''Arrival'' (a.k.a. ''

Stories of Your Life and Others ''Stories of Your Life and Others'' is a collection of short stories by American writer Ted Chiang published in 2002 by Tor Books. It collects Chiang's first eight stories. All of the stories except " Liking What You See: A Documentary" were pre ...

'').

References

External links

workshop web page
Speculative fiction writing circles Writing circles Creative writing programs {{art-org-stub