George R.R. Martin is known first and foremost as the writer of the hugely successful A Song of Ice and Fire series, adapted as the even more successful Game of Thrones on HBO. But he also has a lot of other interests — he owns a theater in his hometown of Santa Fe, is involved in the Meow Wolf art collective, and apparently sponsors young fantasy and science fiction writers as they develop their careers.
Martin talked about that last one today on his Not a Blog. He’s behind the Miskatonic Scholarship, which will cover full tuition and housing for a writer to attend the prestigious Odyssey Writing Workshop in Massachusetts, which will be held this year in June and July. Specifically, Martin is looking for someone who’s going to follow in the footsteps of H.P. Lovecraft when it comes to writing cosmic horror:
"We are not looking for Lovecraft pastiches, nor even Cthulhu Mythos stories. References to Arkham, Azathoth, shoggoths, the Necronomicon, and the fungi from Yuggoth are by no means obligatory…though if some candidates choose to include them, that’s fine as well. What we want is the sort of originality that H. P. Lovecraft displayed in his day, something that goes beyond the tired tropes of werewolves, vampires and zombies, into places strange and terrifying and never seen before. What we want are nightmares new and resonant and profound, comic terrors that will haunt our dreams for years to come."
Miskatonic University and the Miskatonic River, by the way, are fictional places that appear in some of Lovecraft’s stories. Martin is doing a thing here.
Anyway, this sounds like a cool opportunity for a young writer who wants to get their start in the horror genre. You can check out the Odyssey Writing Workshop website for details on applications, which must be turned in by the end of April. And if you’re interested in the program but don’t secure Martin’s personal sponsorship, there are several other scholarships available.
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