Here are the thoughts of Milford’s 2023 bursary winners. We’ll be announcing the recipients of the 2024 Mulford Bursaries in the next couple of weeks
NEON YANG
(they/them)
I attended the Milford Workshop in the autumn of 2023, on the generosity of a bursary. I was pretty nervous as I’d just moved to the UK a year ago and hardly knew anyone. But my fears were unfounded as what I found was a delightfully welcoming community of knowledgeable, passionate, funny and generous writers. Nestled in the silent, remote wilds of Snowdonia, I made new friends and spent a glorious week reading, writing, and having wonderful discussions about story craft and the business of writing. I brought the opening of a new novella with me and got such lovely feedback, which was instrumental when it came to reworking the piece, so for that I’m very grateful.
All this would not have happened if not for the generosity of Milford’s bursary, which paid for the workshop fee and accommodation. The workshop was definitely a highlight of my year and I fully encourage anyone hesitant about it to just apply— you won’t regret it. I’m definitely going to come back as much as I can.
AKOTOWAA OFORI
When I applied for the Milford bursary, encouraged by the newsletter posts of previous bursary recipient, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, I was simply casting my nets. I had no idea that this would be the year that I would gain acceptance into both the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop and the Milford SF Conference. And so, it was with a sense of bewilderment that I found myself preparing to head from Ghana to the UK almost the moment Clarion West ended. But it turned out to be a fantastic sequence of events.
Workshop-related exhaustion aside, I was looking forward to visiting Wales for the first time. I shared a taxi from the Bangor train station to Trigonos with Ida (a real-life mermaid if there ever was one!), Neon, Siobhan, and Mariëlle. I thought about how appropriate it was for a group of SFF writers, of all genres, to convene in Wales, the land of dragons.
The place itself exceeded all my expectations. The workload was heavy, but the environment provided a much-needed oasis of peace in which to complete it. Although it rained consistently during the week, I found pockets of sufficient dryness to sit outside, overlooking the mountains (which surely do conceal a few dragons) or to spend time in contemplation beside the beautiful lake (which I did not dare to take a dip in, for fear of how my West African body would react to the frigid temperature of the water).
Attending Milford while in recovery from Clarion West was perfect because, for one thing, Clarion West had been virtual this year. Milford thus gave me exactly the experience I had missed out on—physical time spent with fellow writers, sharing good energy and expertise inside and outside the critique room—for a limited enough time so as not to completely overwhelm my introverted self. I had the privilege of critiquing excerpts and short stories that I will be ecstatic to read once they are complete and out in the world.
After having just spent six weeks being disabused of the self-consciousness that comes with having one’s work critiqued by other writers, I felt no trepidation going into Milford. However, I did not let that stop me from clutching the adorable emotional support mandrake, courtesy of Liz, during my own critique session. I took it as a sign of celestial pleasure in my manuscript when my crit was interrupted by a majestic rainbow, which we all paused work to gape at for a few minutes.
Outside the critique room, Mariëlle taught me how to play marble solitaire with a board in the Trigonos library. It quickly became my post-dinner obsession. Janet taught me how to peel an egg with a spoon in an egg cup, as well as the word ‘cafetiere’ and the use of the object itself. Jacey introduced me to the wonders of rhubarb gin and tonic, something I never would have thought I’d fall in love with if you had merely described it to me, but I now firmly believe it is one of the world’s greatest alcoholic inventions. I learned, from Chris and Trip, of the existence of Polari, an entire slang system that was developed out of necessity and used by the queer, British underground.
The Milford SF conference has given me the spur I needed to try and finish a draft of the novel-in-progress which I took to the conference. This is still my biggest and most important goal of 2023. On top of that, I feel like I’ve made some amazing new friends and acquaintances. Writers of color, if you get the opportunity to attend Milford with a bursary, I’d encourage you to seize it. As for myself, one of these years, I fully intend to return!
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