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, David has been a popular and much sought-after presenter for all ages and grades schools and at teacher and library conferences for the over two decades. He recently completed his Masters degree in Creative Writing at UBC and in 2012-13 was the Writer in Residence at the Saskatoon Public Library.

In 2011 David’s young adult novel Numbers was selected for the Sakura Medal (awarded by English speaking high school students in Japan to their favourite novel of the year). As a result he was invited to tour International Schools in Japan and Korea in the fall of 2011. Numbers has since been added to the new English curriculum for Grade 10 in Saskatchewan. His 2013 teen novel, Old Man, a YA/Adult crossover novel was a nominee for the White Pine Award in the OLA’s Forest of reading competition. David’s most recent novel, Serpents Rising, his first foray into adult crime fiction and first title in the Cullen and Cobb Mystery series, was released on October 25, 2014. The native Calgarian divides his time between his small ranch in the Alberta foothills southwest of Calgary and a second home in Maricopa, Arizona.

Davidpoulsen.com

Publications

1984 The Welcomin’ Winner of the Alberta Culture Short Story competition
1987 Middle Reader novel The Cowboy Kid. Book 1 of Rodeo Trilogy (Plains Publishing, Edmonton)
1989 Middle Reader novel Ride for the Crown, Book 2 of Rodeo Trilogy. (Plains, Edmonton).
1990 Short story collection Dream. (Plains, Edmonton).
1995 Sports Bio Robokicker, co-written with Dave Ridgway. (Johnson/Gorman Publishing, Red Deer)
1995 Middle Reader novel Ride the High Country, third book in Rodeo Trilogy.
(Red Hawk Books, High River, Alberta. (Coincides with second printings of first two books in trilogy).
1996 Young Adult Novel Billy and the Bearman. (Napoleon Publishing, Toronto) ¬†Selected by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for a Choice Award. ¬†Shortlisted for Blue Heron Book Award and Writers Guild of Alberta Children‚’s Book of the Year.
2000 Wild Ride: Three Journeys Down the Rodeo Road. (Stoddart Publishing Co., Toronto).
2004 Young Adult novel, Last Sam’s Cage. (Key Porter Books, Toronto). Nominated for Snow Willow (Saskatchewan), MYRCA (Manitoba) Young Reader’s Choice Awards and R. Ross Annette (Alberta) Award. Selected by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for a Choice Award
2006 The Vampire’s Visit and The Hunk Machine–first two books of middle reader series The Salt and Pepper Chronicles. Key Porter Books (Toronto).
2007 No Time Like the Past and The Book of Vampire (books 3 and 4 of The Salt and Pepper Chronicles) Key Porter Books (Toronto). The Vampire’s Visit was a finalist for the Silver Birch Reader’s Choice Award in Ontario. No Time Like the Past was a finalist for The Golden Eagle Children’s Choice Book Award in southern Alberta.
Key Porter Books publishes the first two books of the reluctant reader series The Lawrence High School Yearbook‚Wild Thing and Blind Date.
2008 Book 5 of The Salt and Pepper Chronicles‚ÄîThe Prisoners and the Paintings. (Key Porter, Toronto). This book won the 2010 Golden Eagle Children’s Choice Book Award.
Books 3 and 4 of The Lawrence High School Yearbook Series‚ Jeremy’s Song and Cowboy Cool. Key Porter, Toronto)
2009 Book 6 of The Salt and Pepper Chronicles‚ÄîShivers and Shakes. (Key Porter, Toronto).
2010 Numbers‚ Young Adult novel (Key Porter Books, Toronto). Winner of the 2011 Sakura Medal, Japan.
2011 I Wish I Could Be Like Tommy Blake (picture book) Donahue House Publishing, Edmonton.
2013 Old Man. (YA/Adult crossover) Dundurn Books, Toronto.
2014 Serpents Rising, (Adult crime fiction) Dundurn Books, Toronto

Estella Carolye Kuchta, BFA 2006

Estella C. Kuchta’s novel, Finding the Daydreamer, will be published by Elm Books in fall 2020, and her nonfiction eco-education book is currently under contract. She has worked as a researcher for a bestselling author Dr. Gabor Mate, an editor for Susila Dharma International, a freelance writer for Parents Canada Magazine, and an English instructor at various postsecondaries in Canada, China, and Japan. Her creative writing projects have been published in Prism, Grain, Event, Puritan, Subterrain, and The Chadwick Garden Anthology.

carolyekuchta.com

Publications: (Selection)

Breadwinner: The Life of Leo Poulos. Editor. Forthcoming
Educating Children’s Hearts (Essay/Article) Parents Canada Magazine. Forthcoming ‚Rent. (Poem) Subterrain #68, Fall 2014
Tweens Benefit from Keeping a Diary. (Essay/Article) ParentsCanada Magazine. March 2013 ‚Twenty Reasons to Avoid Thinking. (Poem) Prism International #50.1, Fall 2011
Portrait of a Gifted Child. (Essay/Article) ParentsCanada Magazine. August 2010

Erika Thorkelson, MFA 2011

Erika Thorkelson is a writer of non-fiction and, occasionally, fiction. She was born in Winnipeg, grew to adulthood in Edmonton and spent extended periods in Dublin, Ireland and Northern Japan. Firmly ensconced in Vancouver since receiving her MFA in 2011, she is a regular contributor of arts and culture writing to the Vancouver Sun. Her work has also appeared in various national publications, including This Magazine, The New Quarterly, Quill & Quire, Herizons, Ricepaper, The Walrus, and Hazlitt. She is currently working on a book that investigates themes of home and impermanence through the lens of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. When not writing, she works as an instructor and tutor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

www.erikathorkelson.com

Ruth Daniell, MFA 2013

Ruth Daniell is a writer, artist, and performer originally from Prince George, BC. She now lives in Vancouver, where she teaches speech arts and writing at the Bolton Academy of Spoken Arts and runs Swoon, a literary reading series on love and desire. She holds a BA (Honours) from the University of Victoria and her MFA from the University of British Columbia. Her writing appears in literary journals across North America, including The Malahat Review and Room, and has been twice longlisted for the CBC Canada Poetry Prize. Recently, she has been honoured in Contemporary Verse 2 as a runner-up for the 2013 Young Buck Poetry Prize, by inclusion on the shortlist for The London Magazine’s 2014 Poetry Competition, on CBC as the winner of the 2014 Shakespeare Selfie Challenge, and through One Throne Magazine as a nominee for the Pushcart Prize.

ruthdaniell.ca

Jane Warren, MFA 2012

Jane Warren has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and undergraduate degrees from University of Calgary (BEd) and McMaster University (BPE). She has published two-dozen short stories and poems in Canada and the UK and has served on the editorial collectives of literary magazines. Currently she lives in the Netherlands where she works as an editorial consultant.

The Caring Day, a collection of short stories, was published in 2014. Her Middle Grade novel (under revision) received an honorable mention in the S.C.B.W.I.’s Undiscovered Voices 2014 competition, as well as a top 100 finish in Amazon’s 2013 Breakthrough Novel Award (YA).

www.jbwarren.ca

Publications

Elizabeth Mason, MFA 2009

Originally from England, Elizabeth Mason spent seven years in Berlin before moving to Vancouver to pursue an MFA. She now lives in London. She writes and blogs about places and their pasts, modern ruins, and vanished heydays.

https://holidaysoutofseason.wordpress.com

Publications

No Man Land in Malahat Review, 163 (2008); Blühende Landschaften‚ in Litro, 125 (2013)
Futures Past‚ and New States‚ in Litro online (2014) (http://www.litro.co.uk/2014/11/new-states/)

Karim Alrawi, MFA 2013

Karim Alrawi is a novelist and playwright. In addition to his several plays for stage, radio, and television, he is the author of two children’s books, The Mouse Who Saved Egypt (2011) and The Girl Who Lost Her Smile (2000) and, most recently, of the novel Book of Sand (2015). His awards include the John Whiting Award for Best Stage Play, and the Samuel Beckett Award for the Performing Arts. A former editor of the magazine Arabica, he has taught at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, The American University in Cairo, and at the University of Iowa’s international writing program.

www.karimalrawi.com

Publications:

Book of Sands, HarperCollins Canada, Fall 2015

Kathryn Para, MFA 2008

Kathryn Para is an award-winning, multi-genre writer with a MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in Grain, Room of One’s Own, Geist, Sunstream, and Vancouver Review. She is the 2013 Winner of Mother Tongue Publishing’s Search for the Great BC Novel Contest. Her novel Lucky was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2014. Her stage play, Honey, debuted in 2004. She has also written, directed and produced short films. She lives in Gibsons, BC.

Kpara.wordpress.com

Publications:

Lucky: A Novel

Nazanine Hozar, MFA 2013

Nazanine Hozar was born in Tehran, Iran, and lives in British Columbia, Canada. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in the Vancouver Observer and Prairie Fire magazine. Aria is her first novel.

Laura Trunkey, MFA 2009

Laura Trunkey’s writing has been published in journals and magazines across Canada. Her short fiction has been anthologized in the bestselling collection, Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow and her non-fiction has been anthologized in Hidden Lives. The Incredibly Ordinary Danny Chandelier, Laura’s children’s novel, was a starred selection in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre‚ Best Books for Kids & Teens. Her short fiction collection, Double Dutch, is forthcoming from Anansi in spring 2016. Laura lives in Victoria with her husband, photographer Mike Andrew McLean, and their son Angus.

Publications:

The Incredibly Ordinary Danny Chandelier, Annick Press, 2008
Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow (anthology), D&M, 2010
Hidden Lives: Coming out on Mental Illness (anthology), Brindle & Glass, 2013
Double Dutch, Anansi, forthcoming 2016