Camille Pavlenko
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Camille Pavlenko, MFA. Camille’s thesis is a novel entitled Fata Morgana.
Camille Pavlenko is a theatre and literary artist who is passionate about contributing to the arts ecology of the Canadian prairies, where she works as a writer, actor, and playwright. She has been the playwright-in-residence at Alberta Theatre Projects, Alberta Musical Theatre Company, and Quest Theatre. Her short story “Georgie Millionaire“, was awarded the first place prize in ROOM Magazine’s Fiction Contest and she is a proud two-time recipient of the Shevchenko Foundation’s Short Prose Prize for her stories “The Cure for Breathlessness” and “Kuzmenko Residence“, all of which were written during her MFA.
Set at the tail end of the Age of Sail, Fata Morgana concerns the events following the discovery of a group of female castaways in the middle of the South Pacific. This historical fiction novel investigates the inner workings of class, gender, and sexuality on board an 18th century barque. Featuring a carousel of often-irreverent points-of-view, including those of the non-human witnesses aboard HMS Inspiration, this thesis novel follows exceptionally adequate midshipman, Davy Bly, as he pursues an increasingly desperate path to officer-hood, in the middle of a rapidly-unravelling naval hierarchy, 10,000KM from home.
Contact
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Denise Da Costa
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Denise Da Costa, MFA. Denise’s thesis is a novel entitled Misericordia.
Denise Da Costa is a Niagara-based writer whose work explores love, class, and mental health. She holds a B.A. in psychology from York University, and has worked in the technology industry for many years. Her debut novel And the Walls Came Down (Dundurn, 2023), was longlisted for the 2024 Toronto Book Award. During her time at UBC, she served on the PRISM magazine editorial board and published pieces in Geist and Existère magazines, respectively. Additionally, she hosted workshops and panels at the TIFA and FOLD festivals as well as other literary events.
Misericordia is a dystopian fantasy that follows Alicia, a disgruntled and overlooked mid-manager employed at a thriving AI company. She is promoted to lead an unethical AI project just as she takes on new caretaking duties at home. Conflicted, she attempts to balance work, and the needs of her newly unemployed husband, their aging parents, and dependent adult children. Straddling family drama, corporate mystery, and sci-fi, her story highlights the intersections of family, capitalism, technology, and duty.
Contact
Request more information about Denise’s thesis project using our 2026 Graduate Showcase Contact Form.
Lauren Grant
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Lauren Grant, MFA. Lauren’s thesis is a novel entitled Her Madness.
Lauren Grant is a writer and award-winning filmmaker. Her company, Clique Pictures, focuses on telling stories of women pushing against societal expectations. As a writer and director, her short films are Things We Feel But Do Not Say and Erase & Rewind. Her producing work includes the feature films Sugar Daddy, The Retreat, Riot Girls, Wet Bum, Picture Day, and the documentaries Modern Whore, Wilfred Buck, On the Line, Metamorphosis, and Traceable. Lauren served as an executive producer on the Amazon series The Sticky, and her essay “Body Rubble,” about birth after miscarriage, was published in Griffel literary magazine.
Her Madness explores themes of family, mental health, infertility, what we inherently take with us, and what we choose to leave behind. It follows ambitious seamstress Florence MacGregor, who defies societal expectations and the stigma of her mother’s suspected madness by navigating marriages of necessity, love, and security from working-class Glasgow to the bustling city of Montreal in 1917. As she finds success in her career and stability in her third marriage, Florence’s infertility triggers a decision that sends her mental health spiraling with the fear that she carries her mother’s illness.
Contact
Request more information about Lauren’s thesis project using our 2026 Graduate Showcase Contact Form.
Nicole Fitzgerald
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Nicole Fitzgerald, MFA. Nicole’s thesis is a memoir entitled A Cloud Collector.
Nicole Fitzgerald’s writing grew up in the mountains of Whistler, BC where she worked as a journalist in print, television and documentary film for two decades. Her love of nature combined with motherhood and a pandemic led to the inspiration behind her memoir, A Cloud Collector. During her time in the MFA program, she also wrote a middle grade novel, The Rain Folk, and a picture book, Under One Sky. Nicole and her daughter now camp 100 days of the year. When not on the road, Nicole spent three years with the New Shoots program, teaching creative writing at Point Grey and Templeton secondary schools as well as the Vancouver Public Library.
A Cloud Collector is a memoir following the different skies a mother and child travel while navigating the uncertainty of a changing climate with the help of a 17-foot travel trailer. The daughter is deemed at risk by doctors during the pandemic and subsequent wildfire and virus seasons to come, forcing the mother to find a creative way through. A chance encounter at an RV dealership leads to the purchase of a trailer the mother is in no way equipped to drive. The two will camp 100 days of the year collecting clouds and bird song to better understand their place in the world. A natural world the daughter will come to love and fight for.
Contact
Request more information about Nicole’s thesis project using our 2026 Graduate Showcase Contact Form.
Shaughn Clutchey
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Shaughn Clutchey, MFA. Shaughn’s thesis is a stage play entitled The Inversion of Kaija Fournier.
Shaughn Clutchey is a wildland firefighter and writer. Born and raised on the shore of Lake Superior in northwestern Ontario, his creative practice explores outdoor mores inspired by the natural and cultural landscape of his home. Shaughn graduated from York University with an Honours BFA in Theatre where he specialized in playwriting, directing, and screen acting. His stage play, BLANKET FISH, premiered in audio-drama format at the 5290 New Play Festival in 2021. Shaughn received a SSHRC fellowship for his research on the sociocultural dynamics of wildfire. His writing is featured in SAD Mag, The Toronto Star, and elsewhere.
The Inversion of Kaija Fournier is a stage play exploring changes to natural and sociocultural dynamics of wildfire. In Canada’s changing north, comfort is fleeting and the oldest generation is passing. The boreal forest burns. Kaija Fournier is a wildfire crew leader. In a helicopter above the South Slave region of the Northwest Territories, Kaija’s eyes are heavy. She wonders if people can continue to live on a land that has supported families since time immemorial.While The Inversion of Kaija Fournier is a work of climate fiction, script development derived from the primary accounts and experiences of individuals affected by wildfire.
Contact
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Gabrielle Rutman
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Gabrielle Rutman, MFA. Gabrielles thesis is a novel entitled Beautiful Things Die Twice.
Gabrielle Rutman is an emerging writer living on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia (2022) and an MFA in Creative Writing (2025), both from UBC. Gabrielle writes across multiple genres including television, songwriting, and young adult fiction. Her work in the film and television industry includes four years coordinating events at VIFF (2022-25) and most recently coordinating the 2025 Whistler Film Festival Content Summit.
Beautiful Things Die Twice is a young adult novel. In June 2030, seventeen-year-old Zoe moves from Canada to Australia for her marine biologist mother’s fellowship at the Great Barrier Reef. Zoe’s plan is simple: keep her head down and save enough money to fly home to spend her last high school summer with her friends. But a job on a snorkelling boat, an impossible-to-ignore coworker named Gus, and a string of anonymous hate mail sent to her mom make that harder than expected. When she uncovers a corrupt alliance between her mother’s research institute and the tourism industry, Zoe must decide how far she’ll go to expose the truth, even if it means losing everything she’s come to care about.
Contact
Request more information about Gabrielle‘s thesis project using our 2026 Graduate Showcase Contact Form.
Yash Khajuria
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Yash Khajuria, MFA. Yash’s thesis is a novel entitled His Blue God.
After 7 years as a professional comic book writer Yash came to the program to pursue his dream as a fantasy fiction author. He wrote a 250,000 word Epic Fantasy book named “The Lost King,” which won him entrance into the program. During his MFA, dabbling in different writing genres led him to try his hand at literary fiction. The novel “His Blue God” was the result. Its purpose however is beyond passions of creation, for Yash is a full time music-monk dedicated to sharing peace in the world through chanting mantras. This book is part of his mission to spread harmony and love in a world assuaged by conflict.
His Blue God tells the story of a Muslim-born Hindu saint defies religious orthodoxy by chanting Krishna’s names, enduring exile, torture, and miracles to become a spiritual icon who reshapes the meaning of devotion. Malik, the son of a respected Kazi (Islamic judge), lives a life designed by his controllingfather. When a reckless dare sends him into a Hindu temple, he meets Krishna not as doctrine, but as a presence. The Blue God’s gaze makes Malik feel seen for the first time, and he falls into a love that cannot be contained. But a Muslim noble loving a Hindu God is a crime that cannot be forgiven in 16th century Bengal.
Contact
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Christal Rose Hazelton
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Christal Rose Hazelton, MFA. Christal Rose’s thesis is a graphic novel entitled The World Over.
Christal Rose is a Filipino American writer, artist, and videogame developer. Her work as a writer and developer can be seen in projects such as Electronic Arts/Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends, WB Games Avalanche’s Hogwarts Legacy, and RED Games’s OWN Bold Moves and LEGO Brawls. During her MFA, Christal Rose continued to explore her love of research as a Critical Play fellow in UBC’s Pop Culture Cluster and this summer she will be presenting at the 2026 MACL Conference. She’s a member of the ALA and SCBWI. Christal Rose is currently at work writing a YA fantasy novel and editing her debut graphic novel.
The World Over is the first volume of a middle grade fantasy graphic novel series. It centers around Odessa, a thirteen-year-old raised at the bottom of the ocean, and Wren, the surface boy she chances upon. After saving Wren from drowning, Odessa finds herself inexplicably changed—her sea gifts taken from her. Together, Odessa and Wren must find a way to get Odessa home, accidentally uncovering the long-buried history between her waning world and his seemingly thriving one. Loosely based on fairytales and legends from around the world, The World Over explores themes of diaspora, responsibility, identity, and friendship.
Contact
Request more information about Christal Rose’s thesis project using our 2026 Graduate Showcase Contact Form.
The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Chinelo Amadi, MFA. Chinelo’s thesis is a Screenplay entitled Prawn.
Chinelo’s love for writing began at the age of fourteen. Although she took the scenic route and studied law for her first degree, it only deepened her passion for creative writing, and left her with the desire not only to entertain, but to stimulate and contribute to meaningful conversations on societal issues. While pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing, she has written across multiple forms, including plays, poetry, prose, feature films, and television pilots which earned her UBC’s William Rea Fellowship in Television and the Malcom Lowry Scholarship.
Not all fugitives flee across borders with new names and faces; some are trapped in darker fates. When a defense attorney caught in a web of politics and corruption is imprisoned, she must rely on instincts and outside help to gain her freedom. To survive, she must outthink a system determined to bury her. Pawn follows Pam Greene, a criminal lawyer pulled into a twisted rape case that threatens to destroy everything she values. As stakes rise, her life unravels, her family becomes a target and buried secretes emerge, forcing her to confront a chilling question: what does justice mean when the system meant to uphold it is fundamentally broken?
Contact
Request more information about Chinelo’s thesis project using our 2026 Graduate Showcase Contact Form.
