The School of Creative Writing recently welcomed several new faculty members.
“On behalf of the School, I’m pleased to extend a warm welcome to our new faculty members. They bring fresh perspectives in fiction, writing for new media, poetry, and screenwriting, and continue to enrich our students’ learning journeys. In addition to faculty that are new to UBC, it’s wonderful to see some of our alumni returning to teach,” says Director Annabel Lyon.
Ray Clark, Whitney French and Jennifer Moss joined Creative Writing in September. Jules Arita Koostachin (Attawapiskat), Jasmine Sealy and Selina Boan began teaching in January. Clark, Sealy, and Boan are graduates of our MFA program.
Read more to learn what they are teaching, reading and their advice for students.
Ray Clark
Lecturer
New Media
What is your area of teaching?
My area of teaching is new media, with a specific focus on video game narrative. I’m interested in what happens to a story when the audience has the opportunity for two-way interaction, and in how non-traditional channels like systems and mechanics can express narrative. Board games are also an interest of mine!
Why are you excited about being at UBC?
The UBC School of Creative Writing has been a special place to me for many years as a student, and its emphasis on learning from a wide range of forms and genres is what inspired me to take up writing for video games. I’m honored to be part of this endeavor as an instructor, and I look forward to introducing students to the developing medium of games!
What is one piece of advice you have for Creative Writing students?
Now is the perfect time to experiment! Artists are always searching for new material and techniques, and you might be only a workshop away from discovering something that resonates deeply with you. Branch out into new forms and styles, seek fresh experiences, and be bold with your art!
What are you currently reading or watching that you would recommend, and why?
At the moment, I’m rereading Shirahama Kamome’s Witch Hat Atelier. It’s a brilliant fantasy adventure story, and a thoughtful exploration of an artist’s responsibilities to the world as well.
Whitney French
Assistant Professor
Fiction and Poetry
What is your area of teaching?
I am teaching speculative fiction and speculative poetry. Two areas of practice as both a reader and writer. There’s so much to learn about stepping into imaginative spaces with myself, my favourite authors and my students.
Why are you excited about being at UBC?
What’s not to be excited about? UBC is a fantastic institute that invests in creative writing—what a robust program! And the faculty are all rock stars. I am particularly interested in teaching speculative poetry, something I have only done in community spaces so to see it elevated to the academic classroom is very cool to me.
What is one piece of advice you have for Creative Writing students?
Know your literary aesthetic. Know what you like and don’t like. Know your tastes, know what literary tradition you are writing from. You’ll receive a lot of feedback, some good, some not-so-good. But when you’re firm on your aesthetic and spend time cultivating your craft, you trust your writing even when it’s hard to trust yourself.
What are you currently reading or watching that you would recommend, and why?
I usually have a million books on my bedside table but the three I’m actively reading are:
- Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang
- Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
- All the Blood Involved in Love by Maya Marshall
I’m having a lot of fun with Gods of Want which was recommended to me by a UBC student. It’s thrilling reading short-story writers who are unabashedly imaginative and lean hard into mythology. I am forever curious to know what my students are reading. Blackheart Man is Hopkinson’s latest novel and I’ve only begun but already anticipate a rich, hilarious and rewarding story. The world is a joy to walk through. And poetry, because it is my first love. Marshall’s work I’ve admired for a while and meeting her at a conference solidified my appreciation of both the person and the poet. The collection offers a view of our world with profound scrutiny, so incisively bolstered by her language. A heavy-hitter indeed.
Jules Arita Koostachin (Attawapiskat)
Adjunct Professor
Screenwriting
What is your area of teaching?
My Phd was focused on Indigenous documentary practices and processes. When I was teaching at local universities (Vancouver), I taught a variety of courses from social justice, Indigenous studies, Indigenous literature and of course, filmmaking (documentary, producing, screenwriting, & directing).
Why are you excited about being at UBC?
I am a graduate of UBC, so I really enjoy the student culture on campus. I love working with people who love what they do – it inspires me as an artist/storyteller to continue on this path. I love experiencing such a wonderful passion for the arts with other like minded folks.
What is one piece of advice you have for Creative Writing students?
I would tell students to find time to write every day, even if it is only a few pages a day… just write. Be free with your writing and allow yourself to be lost in your imagination and the creative zone.
What are you currently reading or watching that you would recommend, and why?
I am trying to catch up on Indigenous literature, but film life is pulling me on set, which eats up a lot of my time. I am a bit of a crime show person, always have been, so I watch a lot of doc series.
Jennifer Moss
Lecturer
New Media
What is your area of teaching?
My areas of teaching are writing for podcasts, and new media forms like AR, VR, transmedia storytelling, and AI. I’ve also developed a course looking at the history, evolution and practice of immersive, interactive forms of storytelling because I am cognizant of the fact that new forms are built on the shoulders of older forms, and earlier writers. My own creative writing has primarily been in the areas of creative nonfiction, journalism, and audio storytelling, so I lean into those when I teach. I encourage people to think about stories beyond the page, as living, breathing entities with multiple entry points and various layers and possibilities for engagement.
Why are you excited about being at UBC?
As a former student of UBC Creative Writing, I have always noticed how the culture here encourages the development of writers’ unique voices. This department taught me to value my own voice and look at it from various perspectives. I love helping students grapple with the exciting possibilities (and pitfalls) of emerging technologies — while, at the same time, exploring their ideas through writing. I’m committed to helping students develop practical skills as writers. I want to help them bring their work out into the light, and integrate it within the digital ecosystem, the community and their various potential audiences. I’m also excited that I get to work with incredibly talented colleagues who are similarly in love with words and intrigued by the potential of the cross-pollination of forms.
What is one piece of advice you have for Creative Writing students?
My advice would be to trust yourself and trust your voice. If you find something fascinating and dig into it deeply enough, chances are that others will resonate with it as well.
What are you currently reading or watching that you would recommend, and why?
I’m currently reading the novel Kairos, by German author Jenny Erpenbeck. It’s the story of an epic and flawed affair between a young woman and an older man in East Berlin in the 1980s. There’s something about the weight of the prose, the mixture of light and darkness, that echoes The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It’s a compelling story, featuring these two fascinating characters so mired in history, the mingling of romance and brutalism, and the philosophies underpinning the East and the West. I admire the way the author weaves seamlessly back and forth between the incomplete perspectives of the two main characters. It should be confusing, but somehow, it just flows. Taken together, their thoughts and ideas weave a picture of a complex state, and the complexity of love.
Jasmine Sealy
Adjunct Professor
Fiction
What is your area of teaching?
Fiction, with an emphasis on encouraging students to find a creative process that works for them.
Why are you excited about being at UBC?
Ever since I graduated from the MFA I’ve been itching to rejoin the UBC CRWR community. Working with emerging writers as a TA and as an editor at PRISM was the highlight of my MFA experience and I’m thrilled to be able to do so again as an instructor.
What is one piece of advice you have for Creative Writing students?
Write! You are the only person on the planet who can tell the story you want to tell, in your voice. Anything you create has value, because now something exists in the world that didn’t before, thanks to you. And that’s a beautiful thing. So write, write, write.
What are you currently reading or watching that you would recommend, and why?
I am currently reading Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. I have a hard time sticking with books through to the end and will ruthlessly abandon anything that doesn’t grab my attention in the first 20 or so pages (so many VPL holds, so little time!) Kushner got her hooks into me on page one and I’ve been unable to put it down so far.
