Omnivoracious, the Amazon blog where its book editors share their “passion for the written word through news, reviews, interviews, and more,” has a Clarionish post this morning, with Jeff VanderMeer interviewing Greg Frost on his latest, Shadowbridge.  In the course of the interview, Greg talks about his experience teaching Clarion this past summer, and harkens back to his own student days:

I’ve now taught, in order, the third, the last two and the first weeks. So if anyone’s looking for a teacher for weeks two and four, I’m willing to try them out now. The first week was sort of a combination of saying “This is how hard you’re going to work” and “These are the people who are just like you–they want it just as much as you do and that should unite you all.” That’s the common thread. No two people write the same way, but they’re all stretching to produce finished stories, and what one person knows might aid another, who might in turn have the missing piece you need. You can have a Clarion where they all tear each other to pieces, or you can have one where there’s a collective process of teaching and learning going on. I tried to kindle the latter. Stan Robinson warned them the first night that they would bond with the others in their group in ways they’d never anticipated. He’s right, because he and I were thrown together in 1975 at Clarion and that friendship has proven unshakeable. Robert Crais, who drove up to speak to them at the end of week one, is another permanent friend forged out of that Clarion class.

Think about it: Greg Frost, Stan Robinson and Bob Crais, together in the circle critiquing each other’s work in the Clarion way. Make me a fly on that wall.