News about YPO, as well as posts and interviews featuring YPO graduates, instructors, and guest lecturers
P. A. Cornell was a 2025 guest lecturer for Your Personal Odyssey Writing Workshop. She is an award-winning, Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer. A graduate of the Odyssey workshop, her stories have been published in over fifty magazines and anthologies, including Lightspeed, Apex, and three “Best of” anthologies. In addition to becoming Read more
Chloe Smith’s short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Haven Speculative Fiction, Bourbon Penn, and Three-Lobed Burning Eye, among other places. Her debut novella, Virgin Land, came out from Luna Press Publishing in 2023. She is a graduate of Your Personal Odyssey 2024. When she’s not writing, she works Read more
Leah Henderson is a Your Personal Odyssey graduate and the author of many critically acclaimed books for young readers, including The Magic in Changing Your Stars, The Courage of the Little Hummingbird, and Together We March. She holds an MFA in Writing and is on faculty in Spalding University’s graduate writing program. Because she Read more
A. W. Prihandita (she/her) is a Nebula Award-winning and Ignyte Award-nominated author of speculative fiction. She splits her time between the U.S. West Coast, where she’s currently finishing her Ph.D., and Indonesia, where she grew up and where her home remains. She attended the Your Personal Odyssey workshop in 2023 Read more
Chana Kohl works in Jerusalem in clinical trials and research, traveling and writing speculative fiction in her spare time. As winner of the 2023 Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices, her professional writing debut appeared in the May/June 2024 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. She’s a grateful recipient of Read more
Shen Tao is a graduate of Your Personal Odyssey. Her debut fantasy, The Poet Empress, is coming out January 2026 with Tor Bramble (US) and Gollancz (UK). Born in China and raised in Toronto, she has since moved to the Pacific Northwest, where the rain doesn’t bother her one bit. You can Read more
Fonda Lee was a 2024 guest lecturer for Your Personal Odyssey Writing Workshop. Fonda is the author of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga, consisting of the novels Jade City, Jade War, and Jade Legacy, along with a prequel novella The Jade Setter of Janloon and a short story collection, Jade Shards. She is also the author of the science Read more
Carrie Vaughn was a 2024 guest lecturer for Your Personal Odyssey Writing Workshop. Carrie’s work includes the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel Bannerless, a post-apocalyptic murder mystery; the New York Times Bestselling Kitty Norville urban fantasy series; over twenty novels and upwards of 100 short stories, two of which have been finalists for the Read more
APPLICATIONS OPENEarly Action Deadline 2/15 Have you ever wished that you could attend your own private writing workshop that would teach you exactly what you need to know, at the right pace for you, and respond to your questions, problems, and needs in extensive one-on-one sessions? That’s what Your Personal Read more
Arley Sorg was a 2024 guest lecturer for Your Personal Odyssey Writing Workshop. Arley is an associate agent at kt literary. He is a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist and a three-time Locus Award Finalist for his work as co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. Arley is also a SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, Read more