Claudia Casper
Claudia Casper is the author of four novels. Her most recent, The Mercy Journals, a post climate-crisis, post-apocalyptic story of murder, memory and hope, won the 2017 Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished science fiction.
She has been a faculty member at the Iceland Writer鈥檚 Retreat, Whistler鈥檚 writer-in-residence, and a speaker at TedX Vancouver. This fall she will moderate and read at an interdisciplinary conference: Nature Through Her Eyes, in Perpignan, France.
Her best-selling debut novel, The Reconstruction, is being adapted for film in a France/Canada co-production.
Note: Claudia is also interested in working with romance writers who would like to explore this genre together with a writer experienced in fiction and speculative fiction.
Claudia's advice for Writer's Studio applicants
What are you looking for in your workshop group?
I鈥檓 looking for a dynamic group with lively minds, open hearts and plenty of laughter. Shyness given its due. We will hold up writing questions, turn the prism full circle and answer with a multiplicity. No orthodoxies鈥攋ust what works. We will intuit each author鈥檚 intentions and there is no writing problem that can鈥檛 be solved.
What do you look for when reading an applicant鈥檚 submission?
I will be looking for creativity in any aspect of your submissions鈥攙oice, character, structure, story, language, setting鈥攖he unique spark that drives you to write and will drive your readers to read. One of my touchstone quotes is from French filmmaker, author and artist Jean Cocteau (I am grossly paraphrasing): whatever people criticize in your work, do it even more; that鈥檚 where your genius lies. Together we鈥檒l decide when that rule might not apply. 馃槈I welcome submissions from different levels of expertise.