Alumni Profiles

Winona Kent, MFA 1985

Winona Kent, MFA 1985

Winona Kent was born in London, England. She immigrated to Canada with her parents at age 3, and grew up in Regina, where she received her BA in English from the University of Regina. After settling in Vancouver, she graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing. More recently, she received her diploma in […]

Will Clarke, MFA 2015

Will Clarke, MFA 2015

Will is the author of two novels from Simon & Schuster: Lord Vishnu‘s Love Handles and The Worthy. He was named by Rolling Stone as the Hot Pop Prophet and is The New York Times Editor’s Choice. Will is also an active member of the TED community: an Audience Choice TEDx Speaker with over 130,000+ views. Will lives […]

Brenda Leifso, MFA 2005

Brenda Leifso, MFA 2005

Brenda Leifso’s poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada. Her first book, Daughters of Men, was published by Brick Books in 2008 and was shortlisted for Ottawa’s Archibald Lampman award for best book of poetry. She lives in Kingston, Ontario, with her family of five. Publications: Daughters of Men, 2008, Barren the […]

Kevin Chong, MFA 1997

Kevin Chong, MFA 1997

Kevin Chong was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. He’s the author of five books of fiction and non-fiction. As a journalist, his work has appeared in a range of publications, including Taddle Creek, Chatelaine, Maclean’s, Maisonneuve, Vancouver Magazine, and The Walrus. He teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia and […]

Michelle Deines, MFA 2011

Michelle Deines, MFA 2011

Michelle Deines is an award-winning writer who works in multiple genres, including poetry, non-fiction, and drama.  Her poetry has been published in several magazines, including Artis Natura, The Writer’s Cafe Magazine, Event, and Contemporary Verse 2.  Her non-fiction has appeared such publications as Understorey and Maisonneuve.  Michelle’s plays include an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & […]

Matthew J. Trafford, MFA 2008

Matthew J. Trafford, MFA 2008

Matthew J. Trafford is the author of The Divinity Gene: Stories. His fiction has appeared in The Malahat Review and Matrix and has been anthologized in I.V. Lounge Nights and Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow, among others. He has won the Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction and an honourable mention at the National Magazine Awards and has twice been […]

Rhonda Collis, MFA 2011

Rhonda Collis, MFA 2011

Rhonda Collis is a writer living on Vancouver Island, BC. She graduated from the UBC Optional Residency Master of Arts in Creative Writing program in 2011, with a focus on the novel. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies across Canada the UK and the US, including The […]

Diane Tucker, BFA 1987

Diane Tucker, BFA 1987

Diane Tucker was born in 1965 in Grace Hospital in Vancouver. and grew up in the southeast quadrant of the city, where from the age of pretty much nothing she would get up in front of people and perform. This continued unabated until she graduated from John Oliver Secondary School. She earned a B.F.A. in […]

Donna Kane, MFA 2014

Donna Kane, MFA 2014

My poems, short fiction, and essays have been published widely in journals such as The Walrus, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review as well as in several anthologies, most recently, Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013, and I Found it at the Movies: an Anthology of Film Poems (2014). I have published two books of […]

David A. Poulsen, MFA 2010

David A. Poulsen, MFA 2010

David A. Poulsen has been a broadcaster, teacher, rancher, high school football coach, stage and film actor and‚ most of all‚ writer. His writing career began in earnest when his story The Welcomin’ won the 1984 Alberta Culture Short Story Competition. Now the author of more than 20 books, many for middle readers and young adults, […]