Maureen McHugh at the Science Fiction Museum

Clarion West is a renowned Seattle writing workshop for science fiction that takes place every summer. This year they're sponsoring a series of six summer readings at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame featuring some of the instructors who come through the program.

Last night Maureen McHugh, who has been nominated for the top awards in the genre and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for her novel China Mountain Zhang, read from her eagerly awaited collection of short stories, Mothers and Other Monsters.

McHugh is a motherly-looking woman. She's been vocal about her battle with Hodgkin's Disease and her desire to actively support the troops, sparked by a young friend of the family who is stationed in Iraq. But last night was about writing. The small audience made the JPL Theater seem like an intimate setting. She read a story about a girl in the South who grows up with a crush on a werewolf. It was funny and touching, right up there with the rest of her work, which Nancy Pearl calls 'gorgeously crafted' and recommends you read on a rainy day.

More readings are scheduled on Tuesday night for the next four weeks. At $4.00, it's a sweet deal to hear some of the top people in the genre.