Patti Flather, MFA 1999

Patti Flather, MFA 1999

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

This MFA was hugely important, supporting my career development as a writer. I arrived at UBC Acadia family housing from the Yukon with my husband and 2 young daughters. I benefitted greatly from writing workshops in my genres (plays, screen, short fiction) with Bryan Wade, Peggy Thompson, Linda Svendsen & inspiring student peers. I acted in Summerworks in my first solo incarnation of my play West Edmonton Mall (later produced for stage, radio) & adapted Professor Emeritus Patricia Marchak’s powerful book God’s Assassins for a Vancouver Institute public reading. My thesis play Where the River Meets the Sea won a national award and was produced; my early fiction forms part of my forthcoming collection. I had the confidence to co-found Gwaandak Theatre with my husband Leonard Linklater, pursuing our passion with a company focused on Indigenous and diverse Northern voices we didn’t see told often; the company is still thriving. The MFA helped me to find and chart my creative path.

What’s your latest published/performed work(s)?

Co-creator, Ndoo Tr’eedyaa Gogwaandak – Vuntut Gwitchin Stories, radio plays/booklets in Gwich’in/English (Gwaandak Theatre/Vuntut Gwitchin Govt.): vuntutstories.ca. Stage play Paradise, 2017, Playwrights Canada Press; Gwaandak/MT Space production toured nationally. Excerpt forthcoming, Refractions: Scenes, PCP 2020. Co-creator, Map of the Land, Map of the Stars, exploring untold stories of the Yukon’s history. Toured in north and nationally, published in Canadian Theatre Review, Spring 2018

What are your most recent awards?

Yukon Heritage Innovation, Education, & Community Engagement Award for Ndoo Tr’eedyaa Gogwaandak – Vuntut Gwitchin Stories (Gwaandak Theatre/Vuntut Gwitchin Government) in 2019 (I was a co-creator, dramaturg and co-director)
Selected participant for National Playwrights Retreat, Caravan Farm Theatre, B.C., 2019
Arts Builder Award, with husband Leonard Linklater, Yukon Arts Centre, 2016
Kiss That Alaska Highway, Winner, Female Eye Film Festival Script Reading Series, 2011

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

Actively involved in Playwrights Guild of Canada, incoming editor of Women’s Caucus Newsletter. Member of The Writers’ Union of Canada,
Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas. A founding director of new Yukon Words Society. Whitehorse fiction group: Joanna Lilley, Lily Gontard, Ellen Bielawski. Fellow MFAers: Marcus Youssef, Sara Graefe (a year ahead), Kevin Chong, CJ Gatchalian, Natalie Meisner, Rachel Ditor, Craig Holzschuh. Love to connect with others!

Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?

Fiction collection Such A Lovely Afternoon forthcoming 2021. Working now on first novel.
Award-winning writer of produced/published plays, screenplays, fiction.
Currently Playwrights Guild CASA mentor working with South African playwright Tamara Schultz.
Also works as a dramaturg, director.

Recent residencies: Caravan Farm Theatre, Sage Hill Writing Experience, Alderworks Alaska
Links to plays:

https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/P/Paradise
https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/sixty-below-leonard-linklater
https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/street-signs
https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/west-edmonton-mall
https://www.canadianplayoutlet.com/products/where-the-river-meets-the-sea
https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/R/Refractions-Scenes

Co-Devised Works:
https://vuntutstories.ca/
Map of the Land Map of the Stars: https://ctr.utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/ctr.174.013
Other: Nightswimming Pure Research Project with Reneltta

 

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Katherine Collins, MFA 2002

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

The program taught me how to give kind, constructive notes and how to listen to notes without being defensive.

What’s your latest published/performed work(s)?

Lost in Space, Season 3 – Netflix
Riot Girls (Telefilm/Clique Pictures/XYZFilms) – Feature film

What are your most recent awards?

Nominated for 2020 WGA award for best feature script (Riot Girls)
Won 2015 Leo Award for hour long drama script (Motive)

 

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Jacqueline Firkins, MFA 2019

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

I formed a community, improved my skills, and shifted from writing for myself toward writing for publication.

What’s your latest published/performed work?

Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things. YA novel. HMHTeen. December 2019

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

I teach full time in the theatre and film department. I also freelance in the industry as a designer. Member of CWILLBC and SCBWI.

Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?

My sophomore novel, How Not to Fall in Love is currently scheduled for release in fall 2021, also with HMHTeen.

 

Jacqueline’s Website: https://jacquelinefirkins.com/

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Zazie Todd, MFA 2012

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

I enjoyed the opportunity to study in three different genres and it helped improve my writing in many ways.

What’s your latest published/performed work?

Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy, with a foreword by Dr. Marty Becker. Published by Greystone Books, 2020.

What are your most recent awards?

My blog post, The Ultimate Dog Training Tip, won the 2017 Captain Haggerty Award from the Dog Writer’s Association of American for the best dog training book or article.

Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?

Despite launching during the pandemic, WAG is a BC bestseller. I am currently working on my second book, also to be published by Greystone Books, and provisionally titled Purr: the Science of Making Your Cat Happy. My blog, Companion Animal Psychology, is about how to have happy cats and dogs (according to science). I have a blog at Psychology Today called Fellow Creatures, which explores the social world of people and animals. My writing has also appeared in Modern Dog, Modern Cat, Pacific Standard, and The Psychologist. As well as my MFA Creative Writing, I have a PhD in Psychology, and am an affiliate member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. I grew up in Leeds, UK, and now live in Maple Ridge, BC, with my husband and two cats.

Zazie’s Website: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/

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Dina Del Bucchia, MFA 2009

Dina Del Bucchia is a writer, podcaster, literary event host, editor, and otter and dress enthusiast. She is the author of the short story collection, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, and four collections of poetry: Coping with Emotions and Otters, Blind Items, Rom Com, written with Daniel Zomparelli, and, It’s a Big Deal! She was a senior editor of Poetry Is Dead magazine, is the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series and hosts the podcast, Can’t Lit, with Jen Sookfong Lee. She is the co-creator and co-host of Sound On InstaReadings with David Ly and Cynara Geissler.

What’s your latest published/performed work?

The poetry collection, It’s a Big Deal! (Talonbooks, 2019) https://talonbooks.com/books/its-a-big-deal

 

Dina’s Website: http://dinadelbucchia.com/

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Jason Rothery, MFA 2002

What’s your latest published/performed work?

Privilege (a novel)

What are your most recent awards?

Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding New Script — Inside the Seed

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?

I’m a Calgary-based writer and lapsed academic with a professional artistic career spanning nearly twenty years (primarily in theatre). I served as resident dramaturge of Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver), resident playwright of the Soulpepper Academy (Toronto), co-founder and Festival Director of the Calgary Fringe Festival, and Artistic Director of Ghost River Theatre (Calgary).

I’ve enjoyed many professional productions of my theatrical work (as playwright and collaborative-creator), including Inside the Seed, recipient of a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script, and published by Talonbooks. The City & the City – an adaptation of China Miéville’s celebrated cult novel – enjoyed a sold-out premiere run at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. (Re)Birth: EE Cummings in Song toured to New York City’s 42nd Street Theatre after multiple mainstage mountings.

My debut novel, Privilege, was released by Enfield & Wizenty in 2019.

 

Jason’s Website: http://jasonpatrickrothery.com/

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M.F. McDowell, MFA 2012

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

The Program was a huge influence on me. I’d become burnt out and jaded (working as a screenwriter), and the Program brought back my love of writing and crafting a story. The people I met were interesting and gave me tons of support. Truly one of the best educational experiences of my life.

What’s your latest published/performed work?

Open City, Closed Set

What are your most recent awards?

2011 Banff Media Festival – Best Drama TV Pilot (La Fontaine)

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

Okanagan Screen Arts (Board Member/Host)
Center Stage Performing Arts Academy (Vernon, B.C.)

Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?

I’ve just self-published my first novel (which was also my Masters Thesis for the Program), after having an agent struggle to find a home in the traditional publishing world.

 

M.F. McDowell’s Website: http://www.mattmcdowellmedia.com

Catherine Young, MFA 2015

Catherine Young is a writer and performing artist whose work is infused with a keen sense of place. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize in prose and poetry and Best American Essays. She worked as a national park ranger, farmer, educator, and mother before completing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her writing has been published in the anthologies The Driftless Reader (University of Wisconsin Press), Permanent Vacation II: Eighteen Writers on Work and Life in Our National Parks, and Imagination and Place: Cartography. Her work appears in literary journals nationally and internationally in About Place, Fourth River, Hippocampus, Cold Mountain, Passager, and Reliquiae among others. Catherine’s children’s fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appeared in Cricket. Her memoir Black Diamonds, Blue Flames: A Childhood Colored by Coal has been longlisted for the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize.

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

The UBC Optional Residency MFA gave me the tools I needed to find my way as a published writer and to create opportunities for performing, publishing, and teaching.

What’s your latest published/performed work?

About Place journal’s “Practices of Hope” issue published my long poem “Women Tending” and I will appear in an international Youtube reading and discussion.

What are your most recent awards?

Longlisted for the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize.

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

Catherine leads writing workshops, and she serves on the Editorial Board of Midwest Review. She is wildly enthusiastic about Little Free Libraries and is featured in the LFL film Because It’s Small. Her writings are recorded for radio and podcasts. Rooted in farm life, Catherine lives with her family in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area.

Catherine’s Website: http://catherineyoungwriter.weebly.com/

Doretta Lau, MFA 2001

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

I met lifelong friends who continue to support me and my writing.

What’s your latest published/performed work(s)?

Poetry chapbook: CAUSE AND EFFECT (2020)
Short story collection: HOW DOES A SINGLE BLADE OF GRASS THANK THE SUN? (2014)

What are your most recent awards?

Nominated for a National Magazine Award for Best Essay.
Longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize.

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

I am an adjunct professor at UBC CRWR.

 

Doretta’s website: https://www.dorettalau.com/

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Elaine Woo, BFA 2011

How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?

Elaine’s time in the Creative Writing Program brought exposure to varied lyrical and experimental influences. Too, she was introduced to placing social and political thought into her work. Woo was first introduced to graphica at the University of British Columbia, received significant critique, and still pursues it.

What’s your latest published/performed work(s)?

Elaine Woo’s most recent poetry collection, Put Your Hand in Mine, Signature Editions, 2019, is a funny and surreal word painting. She is also the author of Cycling with the Dragon, Nightwood Editions, 2014, where her close eye looks at culture and family. Her latest performance is for the Dead Poets Reading Series on Youtube, where she reads Danish poet, Inger Christensen’s “Poem on Death.”. Based on the West Coast, the terrain has featured significantly in her work.

Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?

Dead Poets Reading Series, Surrey Muse Reading Series, Burnaby Writers Society series Spoken Ink, Watch Your Head (Kathryn Mockler), S/tick (don’tdiepress.org), VISi”s Art Song Lab, The Elephant Journal (Boulder, Colarado) and Elephant Academy, Room Magazine, Event Magazine, Prism International, Experiment-O, h&, Toronto Metrown University: Asian Heritage in Canada, Thorn Lit Mag,, ARC Poetry, Arteidolia (NYC), and Otoliths (Australia), The Elephants, and The Maynard