Sort of self-explanatory.
At the conclusion of our 2015 scholarship drive, we’ve raised $4,500! This has been our most successful scholarship drive ever… a huge thank you to all our generous donors, to the Alpha support staff for their hard work, and everyone who spread the word about us. To celebrate, we’re doing one more illustration reveal from the 2015 Alphanthology, which you can see on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you again!
We’re pleased to report that our scholarship drive has reached $4,000! Head over to Facebook or Twitter to see the latest illustration reveal from this year’s Alphanthology.
In fact, we’ve reached $4,235, which means we’re only $265 away from the next reveal at $4,500. Want to help us get there, and help this year’s students come to Alpha? You can donate here. Thank you so much to everyone who’s donated so far!
We’re extending the scholarship drive through April 1, to make sure we meet as many of our 2015 students’ scholarship needs as we can. Right now, we’re at 72% of our fundraising goal. Haven’t donated yet, or want to increase your gift? Head over to our Donate page.
Also, starting at $3,500, we’re revealing an illustration from this year’s Alphanthology for every $500 we raise. To see the first illustration reveal and get other Alpha-related updates, you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
The 2015 Alpha scholarship drive is underway! Since 2010, our alumni-run scholarship drives have raised money to make sure no student has to miss out on Alpha for financial reasons. This year, we’re already about 1/3 of the way to our goal of $5,000. We’d like to thank everyone who’s donated so far, and the folks at Boing Boing, Worlds Without End, Sword and Laser, SFWA, SF Signal, and Tor.com for mentioning us. (By the way, if you’re interested in winning an ARC of Seth Dickinson’s highly anticipated debut novel The Traitor Baru Cormorant–and believe me, YOU ARE–then you should definitely check out that last link.)
Today, I have a particularly awesome announcement: matching donations! Starting NOW, the next $900 in donations to our scholarship drive will be matched! So if you donate $25, that’s like donating $50 to help young writers have the experience of a lifetime. (You can read what former students have to say about Alpha here.)
You can read more about Alpha, and donate to our scholarship fund, on our handy Donate page.
Congratulations to Alpha graduate Claire Spaulding (2014) whose story “Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Apocalypse” appeared yesterday at Daily Science Fiction:
I can’t believe how bright and sharp and silver the stars look at three in the morning between gaps in the clouds. A few flakes flutter through the warm night air. What people have been calling “goodbye flurries.” White snowflakes mixed with hot black ash. When the goodbye flurries show up, you know the doomsday front is only a day or two away from your town.
You can read the whole story at Daily Science Fiction’s website, and a complete list of Alpha graduates’ publications and awards is here.
The 2015 Dell Magazines Award winners have been announced! This award is for undergraduate speculative fiction writers. The award is given at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in March, and each winner receives an ICFA membership and can attend.
This year, we’d like to congratulate Kayla Chronister (Alpha 2013), the winner of the 2015 Dell Magazines Award with her story “How the Blood Spills,” as well as Jameyanne Fuller (Alpha 2011 & 2012), who was second runner-up with her story “Naming Angelo.”
Huge congratulations to all the finalists, as well as everyone who entered the contest!
Congratulations to Alpha graduate Alena Sullivan (2006 & 2008), whose poem “Red Daughter” appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of Goblin Fruit:
I have been lost as snow is lost
On the first warm morning of May,
And I have been lost as all women are lost
When they abandon the road for the shadowy way
You can read the whole poem at Goblin Fruit’s website, and a complete list of Alpha graduates’ publications and awards is here.
Now that award nomination season is upon us, we’d like to take a moment to look back at the stories, poems, and novels that Alpha graduates published in 2014. Here’s the list. It’s complete as far as we know, but please let us know if we’ve missed any!
Gillian Conahan, 2006 & 2007
“Insurrection in Silk,” Apex #62, July 2014
Seth Dickinson, 2006 & 2007
“Anna Saves Them All,” Shimmer #21, September 2014
“Economies of Force,” Apex #64, September 2014
“A Tank Only Fears Four Things,” Lightspeed, May 2014
“Our Fire, Given Freely,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #145, April 2014
“Kumara,” Escape Pod #441, March 2014
“Sekhmet Hunts the Dying Gnosis: A Computation,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #143, March 2014
“Morrigan in the Sunglare,” Clarkesworld, March 2014
Lara Elena Donnelly, 2007 & 2008
“Homegrown Tomatoes,” Escape Pod (forthcoming in December 2014)
“Chopin’s Eyes,” Strange Horizons, July 2014
Rachel Grinti, 2002 & 2003, and Mike Grinti, 2002 & 2004
Jala’s Mask, Pyr, 2014
Rachel Halpern, 2007 & 2008
“Make No Promises,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #153, August 2014
Getty Hesse, 2013
“Death and His Lover,” Daily Science Fiction, March 2014
Shivaun Hoad, 2006
“The Trial of the Beekeeper,” AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, April 2014
Andrea Lam, 2005 & 2006
“Helen” (poem), Goblin Fruit, Summer 2014
Rachel Sobel, 2008 & 2009
“The River Does Not Run,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #142, March 2014
The complete list of Alpha graduates’ publications and awards is here.
Applications are now open for the 2015 Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers. If you’re between the ages of 14-19 and write science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror, you should apply! All the instructions you’ll need are here.
Here are some other helpful links:
Alpha will be held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Greensburg Campus July 23-August 2, 2015. Workshop tuition is $1200, and a limited pool of scholarship funding is available for students with financial need.
Any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us.
Alpha is pleased to announce that author Alaya Dawn Johnson will teach at the 2015 workshop.
Alaya Dawn Johnson is the author of six novels for adults and young adults. Her novel The Summer Prince was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her most recent, Love Is the Drug, was released this past September to a starred Kirkus review. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Interzone, Subterranean, Zombies vs. Unicorns and Welcome to Bordertown.
Other author guests for 2015 include Tamora Pierce, Ellen Kushner, and Delia Sherman. You can read more about 2015’s author guests here.