Originally an outgrowth of Damon Knight's and Kate Wilhelm's Milford Writer's Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, it was founded in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania.
[2] In 1972, the workshop moved to Michigan State University.
[3] In 2015, the Clarion Foundation received an anonymous gift of $100,000 to found an endowment funding the workshop.
[4] The Clarion Workshop events for 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the students selected for 2020 slated to attend in 2022.
[5] Independently operated workshops which share the Clarion name and follow its founding principles include: