Clarion party

Last night was the first of the weekly Clarion parties for the out-going instructors, this one for John Kessel. Each week the old instructor, drained of all he knows, is hauled away like an empty suitcase and a fresh instructor is installed. Last night's party was particularly full because, in addition to students and local writers and fans, there are several visiting firemen in Seattle for tomorrow's Locus awards. Here is Gardner Dozois, grimacing at the 1,806th picture taken of him:

Ellen Datlow and Ken Scholes were more cooperative:

Jack Skillingstead, with me, is drifting along on a tide of literature and beer:

I did not get photos of so many more: Connie Willis, Karen Joy Fowler, Christopher Moore. I will do better tomorrow. Moore, the emcee for the Hall of Fame inductions (also tomorrow) gave a very funny speech about writing. Two key points: (1) You really don't need to lose ten years to an alcoholic haze no matter how much you admire Hemingway, and (2) since Raymond Carver died nobody can make a living writing short stories, so all the Clarion students had better learn to write novels.