2012 Clarion Instructors

Jeffrey Ford

Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels,The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, and The Drowned Life. His fiction has been translated into over 20 languages, and has won the World Fantasy Award, The Edgar Allan Poe Award, The Shirley Jackson Award, The Nebula, and the Gran Prix de l'Imaginaire.

Marjorie Liu

Marjorie Liu is an attorney, and a New York Times bestselling author of paranormal romances and urban fantasy. In the world of comic books, she is also the writer of NYX: No Way Home, Black Widow, X-23, and Dark Wolverine. She lives in the American Midwest and Beijing, China. For more information, see her website, or follow her on Twitter.

Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang is the author of Stories of Your Life and Others. He was born and raised in Port Jefferson, New York, and attended Brown University, where he received a degree in computer science. His debut story "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula in 1990. Since then, he has won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992, a Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for "Story of Your Life" (1998), a Sidewise Award for "Seventy-Two Letters" (2000), a Nebula Award, a Locus Award, and a Hugo Award for his novelette "Hell Is the Absence of God" (2002), a Nebula Award and a Hugo Award for his novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (2007), a Hugo Award and a Locus Award for his short story "Exhalation" (2008), and most recently, a Hugo Award and a Locus Award for his novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (2010). He lives outside of Seattle, Washington.

Walter Jon Williams

Walter Jon Williams is an award-winning author who has appeared on the best-seller lists of the New York Times and The Times of London. He is the author of twenty-nine novels and three collections of short fiction. His first novel to attract serious public attention was Hardwired (1986), described by Roger Zelazny as "a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe-light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars." In 2001 he won a Nebula Award for his novelette, "Daddy's World," and won again in 2005 for "The Green Leopard Plague." Walter's subject matter has an unusually wide range, and includes the glittering surfaces of Hardwired, the opulent tapestries of Aristoi, the bleak future depicted in the police novel Days of Atonement, and the pensive young Mary Shelley of the novella "Wall, Stone, Craft," which was nominated for a Hugo, a Nebula, and a World Fantasy Award. His latest work is Deep State, a near-future thriller set in the world of alternate reality gaming. He has also written for the screen and for television, and has worked in the gaming field. He was a writer for the alternate reality game Last Call Poker, and has scripted the recent mega-hit Spore. For further information, visit his website.

Holly Black

Holly Black is a bestselling author of contemporary fantasy books for children and teens. She collaborated with her long-time friend, Caldecott award winning artist Tony DiTerlizzi, to create the bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles. The five-book series has been called "vintage Victorian fantasy" by The New York Post and was made into a film in 2008 starring Freddie Highmore and Sarah Bolger. Her other books include The Modern Faerie Tale series, The Good Neighbors graphic novel trilogy (with Ted Naifeh), and her new Curse Workers series, which began with White Cat. The second book, Red Glove, has just come out and she is hard at work on the third, Black Heart. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, a finalist for an Eisner Award and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award.

Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is the New York Times, LA Times, and USA Today bestselling author of The Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices trilogies for young adults. Her first book, City of Bones, was a 2007 Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel. Her books have been translated into 32 languages. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two cats.