In 2021 Elaine Woo’s Put Your Hand in Mine was cited by CBC Radio North by Northwest host Sheryl MacKay and Western Sky co-owner Tamara Gorin as one of the three best poetry collections in recent years. Her bio is also in ABC BookWorld. She has written libretto and song lyrics for art song and other media. Her collaborations with Vegas composer Rylan Leo Helmuth are found at https://soundcloud/elainesoundpath. Some pieces of her own creation are surreal pieces.
She has created vegan recipes and written articles about coping with anxiety and depression, the poverty of seniors, why people look angry for the mindfulness site The Elephant Journal in Boulder, Co.
How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?
The creative writing program allowed me to explore my passion for storytelling, make meaningful connections with others, and better my craft as a screenwriter.
What’s your latest published/performed work(s)?
SOL – 2020 Crazy8’s Short Film
Driftwood – 2020 Telus Storyhive (Short Film)
What are your most recent awards?
Finalist for top 6 Crazy8’s Film Event
Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?
Alumni from the UBC Film Production Program,
Very well connected in the indie film industry in and around Vancouver, CA.
Formed a production company “Studio 104 Entertainment” with fellow UBC film alumni.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
