Calvin Wharton is a Faculty Emeritus of Creative Writing at Douglas College, where he served as Department Chair (2008-16) and as Editor of Event magazine (1996-2001). He was a writer in residence at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and a participant in the Coracle Europe Literary Residency in Tranås, Sweden. His next book publication will be a collection of poetry.
Nomination for BC Book Prize Ethel Wilson award (Shelter)
Named one of Waterstones 11 (Shelter)
Nominated for Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award (Shelter)
Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?
Shelter has been translated into four languages. Red Fox Road, a novel for readers ages 10-14, will be published by Penguin in September 2020 and in Italy by Keller Editore.
Kathryn is the author of four poetry books and several short films and experimental video which have screened at over 60 festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Festival, ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, and EMAF and have been broadcast on TMN, Movieola, and Bravo.
She attended the Canadian Film Centre’s Writers’ Lab and wrote two short films for the NBC/Universal Short Dramatic Film Program.
She is the Publisher of Watch Your Head, an online anthology of creative works devoted to climate justice and the climate crisis, and she is an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at the University of Victoria.
What’s your latest published/performed work?
I’m editing a print anthology called Watch Your Head which will be published by Coach House Books in October 2020.
I have a poetry chapbook written in collaboration with Gary Barwin forthcoming from Knife | Fork | Book (Fall, 2020).
My debut collection of stories is forthcoming from Book*hug (2022).
Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?
I am an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC).
I am an Assistant Profession of Screenwriting at the University of Victoria.
How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?
My MFA at UBC helped me see I was a writer all along, even when I carried countless other roles within me. It was like being handed a tool to excavate those writing skills, polish them up and employ them creatively, in a style that could be all mine.
What’s your latest published/performed work?
Girls Need Not Apply: Field Notes from the Forces (McClelland & Stewart, Aug 2019)
What are your most recent awards?
-Memoir noted as top 100 Books of 2019 with Globe and Mail and instant National Bestseller
-2nd place in the 2019 Room Magazine Creative Non Fiction contest
-2018 Runner-up Feature Article of the Year with Professional Writers Association of Canada
-House of Anansi Press Golden Anniversary Prize for fiction
-Barbara Novak Award for Personal Essay, 2012 and 2017
Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?
-Writers’ Union of Canada
-Canadian Non Fiction Collective Society
-Canadian Freelance Guild
Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?
Have taught at Trent University, Royal Roads University, and Loyalist College.
Bren Simmers’ first book of non-fiction, Pivot Point (Gaspereau Press, 2019), is a lyrical account of a nine-day wilderness canoe journey and a frank reflection on the roles friendship, mindfulness, and creativity play in the evolution of our lives. She is also the author of two books of poetry, Night Gears (Wolsak & Wynn, 2010) and Hastings-Sunrise (Nightwood Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. A lifelong West Coaster, she now lives on PEI.
I graduated from the MFA program in 2013. I recently sent in my alumni profile. I also wanted to let you know that my book, This Hole Called January, just won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry. Announcement was made June 18, 2020.
How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?
I produced a lot of work in Susan Juby’s Writing for Children class during my MFA, and many of those beginning pieces have turned into book-length works that have gone on to be published novels for youth.
What’s your latest published/performed work?
THE STONE OF SORROW (RUNECASTER BOOK ONE), April 7, 2020 from Orca Book Publishers. Young Adult Fantasy, the first in a three-book series.
What are your most recent awards?
Double or Nothing (forthcoming)–Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Are you connected to any creative writing communities you’d like to mention (UBC alums, film and theatre communities, etc)?
CANSCAIP
SCBWI
Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?
Brooke Carter is a Canadian novelist and poet and is the author of several books for teens, including the RUNECASTER fantasy series (THE STONE OF SORROW, THE SAGA OF LIES, and THE SISTERS OF WAR), as well as the contemporary young adult novels ANOTHER MISERABLE LOVE SONG, LEARNING SEVENTEEN, LUCKY BREAK, THE UNBROKEN HEARTS CLUB, and DOUBLE OR NOTHING.
Her poetry has appeared in EVENT and THE HUMBER LITERARY REVIEW and her debut chapbook, POCO LOCO, was published by Anstruther Press in 2016.
She has worked as a magazine editor, a freelance writer, an advertising copywriter, and a professor of marketing, communications, public relations writing, and creative writing at the college level.
How did your time in the Creative Writing Program influence your work?
My biggest influence was Bob Harlow, who, early on, encouraged me to focus on non-fiction. (I didn’t for a long time).
What’s your latest published/performed work?
The Bulldog and the Helix – DNA and the pursuit of justice in a frontier town
Is there anything else about your writing career you’d like to share?
I call it my “accidental” journalism career. I landed in the newsroom of the Alberni Valley Times in 1996 and found out what I should have been doing in the first place. Didn’t try to move up because I knew the newspaper business was going to hit some hard times.
