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Odyssey Ten
10/11/2004 . Source: Jessica Martin 
The tenth annual Odyssey summer SFF writing workshop is announced for 2005. Since its inception in 1996, Odyssey has been held each summer on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, the workshop running for six weeks, and combining an intensive writing experience with feedback on students' manuscripts. Forty percent of Odyssey's graduates have gone on to be published. The roll-call of authors, editors, and agents who have served as guest lecturers at Odyssey, include George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Jane Yolen, Terry Brooks, Ben Bova, Ellen Datlow, Donald Maass, and Dan Simmons.
Jeanne Cavelos, Odyssey's founder and director, is an author and former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, where she won the World Fantasy Award for her work. "I give the same unflinchingly honest, concrete, detailed feedback to students that I provided to professional authors," Cavelos said. "That can be a shock for students, but it can also trigger rapid improvement. I'm constantly told by graduates that they learned more at Odyssey than they learned in years of workshopping and creative writing classes."
The workshop runs from June 13th-July 22nd, 2005. Class meets for 3 1/2 hours in the morning, 5 days a week, and students use the afternoons and evenings to write and critique each other's work. Prospective students, aged 18 and up, apply from all over the world. The application deadline is APRIL 15.
This year Odyssey is hosting two writers-in-residence: Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem. is Of Melanie's first novel, Stephen King said, "spectacular, far better than anything by new writers in the hardcover field." Dan Simmons calls her "the literary successor to Shirley Jackson."
Steve's stories have been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Ray Bradbury, and Raymond Carver. Combined, Melanie and Steve have won a British Fantasy Award, a World Fantasy Award, an International Horror Guild Award, and two Bram Stoker Awards.
2005 guest lecturers include authors Elizabeth Hand, Allen M. Steele, P. D. Cacek, and James Morrow; genre critic, reviewer, and fiction writer John Clute; and editor Sheila Williams. Lecturers will share their own perspectives and critique student manuscripts.
Barbara Campbell, who attended Odyssey in 2000, has just sold her first novel, Heartwood, to DAW Books. She explained that after attending Odyssey, "I now had the tools to analyze pacing, world-building, characterization (and my old pal - plot) ... I ultimately transformed my wandering fantasy of 180,000 words into a 100,000-word novel I was ready to show my agent."
Elaine Isaak, class of 1997, said, "The first two stories I ever sold would not have been written without Odyssey. . . . Jeanne has an eye for identifying the author's intent and the heart of the work, and offering useful advice about how to craft the work to be nearer to the dream." The Singer's Crown and The Eunuch's Heir by Elaine Isaak will be published by the Eos imprint of HarperCollins next year.
Tuition is $1,500 and housing in on-campus apartments runs $625 for the six weeks. Students have the option of receiving college credit. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor and graduate of the program, Odyssey will be offering three Gandalf Grant scholarships to the most promising writers of the class of 2005 in the amounts of $1,250, $500, and $250.
Those interested in receiving further information and an application should visit the website at http://www.sff.net/odyssey, or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Odyssey, 20 Levesque Lane, Box G, Mont Vernon, NH 03057, phone/fax (603) 673-6234, e-mail jcavelos@sff.net.
Their website includes writing and publishing tips as well as excerpts from previous guest lectures. 
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