People

Faculty
Tenure-Stream

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

they/them

Assistant Professor & Rogers Communications Chair in Creative Non-Fiction

location_onBuchanan E475

Research Area

Nonfiction
Alex Marzano-Lesnevich is the author of THE FACT OF A BODY: A Murder and a Memoir, which received a Lambda Literary Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the Grand Prix des Lectrices Elle, the Prix des libraires du Quebec, and the Prix France Inter-JDD. It was translated into eleven languages and is in devel...Read more

Research Area

Nonfiction

Alix Ohlin

Alix Ohlin

she/her

Professor

location_onBuchanan E473
Alix Ohlin is the author of six books, most recently the novel Dual Citizens and the story collection We Want What We Want (2021). She has been a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, among others, and her work has appeared in Best Americ...Read more

Annabel Lyon

Annabel Lyon

sher/her

Professor and Director

phone604 822-3023
location_onBuchanan E472
Annabel Lyon published her first book, Oxygen, a collection of stories, in 2000. The Best Thing for You, a collection of three novellas, followed in 2004. She has written two books for children, All Season Edie (2009) and Encore Edie (2010). Her first novel, The Golden Mean, was published in 2009...Read more

Anosh Irani

Anosh Irani

he/him

Assistant Professor

location_onBuchanan E468
Anosh Irani is a three-time Governor General’s Literary Award-shortlisted author and playwright, and a two-time winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play.  His novel, The Parcel, was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,...Read more

Billy-Ray Belcourt

Billy-Ray Belcourt

He/Him

Associate Professor

location_onBuchanan E461

Research Area

Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry
Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Alberta and has been both a Rhodes Scholar and a PE Trudeau Foundation Scholar. He is the author of This Wound is a World (Frontenac House 2017), winner of the 2018 Canadian Griffin Poetry Pri...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry

Bronwen Tate

Bronwen Tate

She/Her

Associate Professor of Teaching and Undergraduate Chair

location_onBuchanan E456

Research Area

Nonfiction | Poetry | Translation
Bronwen Tate is the author of the poetry collection The Silk the Moths Ignore (Inlandia Institute 2021), National Winner of the Hillary Gravendyk Prize, and a contributor to Midwinter Constellation (Black Lawrence Press 2022), a poetry collaboration. A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Bronwen earned...Read more

Research Area

Nonfiction | Poetry | Translation

Cecily Nicholson

Cecily Nicholson

she/her

Assistant Professor

location_onBuchanan E477

Research Area

Poetry
Cecily Nicholson is the author of four books and past recipient of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (2015) and the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry (2018). She is the first honouree of the Phyllis Webb Memorial Reading award from the Poetry in Canada Society (2023) and 2024/2025 Hollo...Read more

Research Area

Poetry

Emily Pohl-Weary

Emily Pohl-Weary

She/Her

Associate Professor

phoneTBA
location_onBuchanan E166

Research Area

Fiction | Writing for Youth
Emily is the author of three novels, two collections of poetry, a biography, a series of girl pirate comics, and a podcast drama script. Her most recent books are the young adult novel Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl and the poetry collection Ghost Sick. She has worked in many different positions wi...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Writing for Youth

Frances Koncan

Frances Koncan

they/them

Assistant Professor

location_onBuchanan E471

Research Area

Playwriting
Frances Koncan is an Anishinaabe and Slovene playwright and theatre artist from Couchiching First Nation. They hold an MFA in Playwriting from the City University of New York Brooklyn College. Productions of their work include Women of the Fur Trade (2023) at the Stratford Festival directed by Yv...Read more

Research Area

Playwriting

John Vigna

John Vigna

He/Him

Associate Professor of Teaching

location_onBuchanan E469

Research Area

Fiction
John Vigna’s (he, him, his) novel, No Man’s Land, was published in Fall 2021. His first book of fiction, Bull Head, was received with critical acclaim in Canada and the US in 2012 and published in France by Éditions Albin Michel in 2017. It was selected by Quill & Quire as an editor’s ...Read more

Research Area

Fiction

Keith Maillard

Keith Maillard

he/him

Professor

location_onBuchanan E167

Research Area

Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry
Keith Maillard is the author of fifteen novels, a book of poetry, and two memoirs. Twelve of his titles have been shortlisted for or won literary prizes. Light in the Company of Women was a runner-up for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Motet won that prize. Hazard Zones was short-listed for...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry
ON LEAVE
July 2025

Linda Svendsen

Linda Svendsen

ON LEAVE
July 2025

She/Her

Professor

location_onBuchanan E169
Linda’s novel, Sussex Drive, was published by Random House Canada in 2012 and was a CBC Bookie Awards nominee in the comedy category. Linda’s story collection, Marine Life, was published in Canada (HarperCollinsCanada), the U.S. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Germany (Residenz Verlag), and w...Read more

Maureen Medved

Maureen Medved

she/her

Associate Professor

location_onBuchanan E178

Research Area

Fiction | Screenwriting
Maureen Medved’s novel The Tracey Fragments was published by House of Anansi Press. Over the years, Maureen’s writing as well as adaptations of her work have been published in literary journals, magazines and produced for stage and screen. Maureen’s screen adaptation of The Tracey Fragments...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Screenwriting

Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson

She/Her

Professor

location_onBuchanan E164

Research Area

Fiction
Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica, and spent the first 16 years of her life in Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and the US before her family moved to Canada. She writes science fiction and fantasy, exploring their potential for centering non-normative voices and experiences. Her first novel, Brown Girl in...Read more

Research Area

Fiction

Nancy Lee

Nancy Lee

She/Her

Associate Professor and Graduate Chair

location_onBuchanan E463

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry
Nancy Lee is the award-winning author of two works of fiction, Dead Girls and The Age, and a poetry collection, What Hurts Going Down (McClelland & Stewart, 2020). Her books have been published in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, and her work most recently appeared in P...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry

Sarah Leavitt

Sarah Leavitt

She/Her

Assistant Professor

phoneN/A
location_onBuchanan E470

Research Area

Graphic Forms
Sarah Leavitt is a cartoonist and educator whose particular areas of interest include autobiographical comics, formal experimentation in comics, and comics pedagogy – developing strategies for teaching comics creation as well as exploring how comics creation shapes students’ work in other forms ...Read more

Research Area

Graphic Forms

Sharon McGowan

Sharon McGowan

She/Her

Associate Professor

location_onBuchanan E162

Research Area

Screenwriting
Sharon McGowan’s most recent film is the hour-long documentary Bearded Ladies: the Photography of Rosamond Norbury, which premiered at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in 2015. This film was also produced by Peggy Thompson, the co-producer and writer of Better than Chocolate. THE OLDEST BASKE...Read more

Research Area

Screenwriting

Timothy Taylor

Timothy Taylor

He/Him

Professor

location_onBuchanan E467

Research Area

Fiction | Nonfiction
Timothy Taylor is a bestselling and award winning author of six book-length works of fiction and nonfiction. He emerged on the writing scene in 2000, when three of his short stories were selected for a single edition of the Journey Prize Anthology. His story Doves of Townsend won the Journey Priz...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Nonfiction

Whitney French

Whitney French

She/Her

Assistant Professor

location_onBuchanan E474

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry
Whitney French (she/her) is a writer, educator and publisher. She is the editor of the award-winning anthology Black Writers Matter (University of Regina, 2019) and Griot: Six Writers Sojourn into the Dark (Penguin Random House, 2022). Her novel-in-verse, Syncopation is forthcoming with Wolsa...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry
Lecturers

A.E. Osworth

A.E. Osworth

they/them

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E458

Research Area

Fiction
A.E. Osworth is a transgender novelist whose debut, WE ARE WATCHING ELIZA BRIGHT (Grand Central Publishing 2021) was long listed for The Center For Fiction First Novel Prize, The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and The Tournament of Books; it was a finalist for The Oregon Book Award. Their ...Read more

Research Area

Fiction

Jennifer Moss

Jennifer Moss

she/her

Lecturer

phoneN/A
location_onBuchanan E458
Jen has spent nearly 20 years as a storyteller. Starting in theatre, she moved into print journalism, radio, and eventually became a new media writer and digital interactive producer. Her writing revolves primarily around arts, local issues, and character-driven stories. She has a strong track recor...Read more

Jordan Scott

Jordan Scott

he/him

Lecturer

Jordan Scott is a poet and children’s author. His debut children’s book, I Talk Like a River (illustrated by Sydney Smith), was a New York Times best Children’s Book of 2020. I Talk Like a River is translated into nineteen languages and was the recipient of the American Library Associati...Read more

Mallory Tater

Mallory Tater

She/Her

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E466

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry
Mallory Tater (she/her) is the author of the novel The Birth Yard (HarperCollins Canada 2020) and the poetry collection This Will Be Good (Book*Hug Press 2018) and Lockers are for Bearcats Only (Forthcoming, Palimpsest Press 2026). She was the recipient of CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize and is the pub...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry

Mandy Catron

Mandy Catron

she/her

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E480

Research Area

Nonfiction
Mandy Len Catron is the author of How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays. The book was listed for the 2018 RCB Taylor Prize and the Kobo Emerging Writer Award. Her writing can be found in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Rumpus, Catapult, and The Walrus among...Read more

Research Area

Nonfiction

Ray Clark

Ray Clark

they/them

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E476
Ray Clark is an independent game developer and a graduate of Creative Writing BFA and MFA programs at the University of British Columbia. They work primarily in story-driven video games, as well as in board game development, and their work is published on Steam and itch.io.

Sara Graefe

Sara Graefe

she/her

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E476

Research Area

Playwriting | Screenwriting
Sara Graefe is a playwright and screenwriter. She started her career in the trenches of Canadian theatre and is a three-time winner of the National Arts Centre’s Young Playwrights Search. Her plays, which include Sadly As I Tie My Shoes, Dreamspyre and Yellow on Thursdays, have been produced as...Read more

Research Area

Playwriting | Screenwriting

Sheryda Warrener

Sheryda Warrener

She/Her

Lecturer

phoneN/A
location_onBuchanan E476

Research Area

Poetry
Sheryda Warrener is a poet, editor, and teacher, most recently the author of Floating is Everything. Her third collection, Test Piece, is forthcoming in Fall 2022 from Coach House Books. Her work can be found in literary journals across North America, and has been selected for Best Canadian Poetry, ...Read more

Research Area

Poetry

Susan Musgrave

Susan Musgrave

she/her

Lecturer

Research Area

Poetry
Susan Musgrave has published more than 30 books and has received awards in six categories — poetry, novels, non-fiction, food writing, editing and books for children. Her home is near Masset on Haida Gwaii. Recent awards include the B.C. Civil Liberties Association 50th Anniversary Award for co...Read more

Research Area

Poetry

Tanya Kyi

Tanya Kyi

she/her

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E480

Research Area

Writing for Youth
Tanya Kyi is the author of more than 30 picture books, novels, and information books for children and young adults. She often writes about science, history, pop culture, or a combination of the three. Her recent works include Me and Banksy, Mya’s Strategy to Save the World, and This Is Your Brai...Read more

Research Area

Writing for Youth
ON LEAVE
September to December 2024

Tariq Hussain

location_onBuchanan E466

Research Area

Songwriting
Tariq Hussain is a songwriter / recording artist, and a non-fiction writer living in Vancouver. He began his artistic career as a songwriter in his late twenties when he released his first album, Splat. Soon after, his subsequent album, The Basement Songs (1997) earned him a Juno nomination with ...Read more

Research Area

Songwriting

Taylor Brown-Evans

Taylor Brown-Evans

he/him

Lecturer

location_onBuchanan E466

Research Area

Graphic Forms
Taylor Brown-Evans is a writer, illustrator and cartoonist living in Vancouver. His work has appeared in Geist, Matrix, Poetry is Dead, The Feathertale Review, Ricepaper Magazine as well as alternative press zines, chapbooks. His most recent project, Songs for a Lost Pod, is a comicbook collaborati...Read more

Research Area

Graphic Forms
Sessional Instructors

Dina Del Bucchia

Dina Del Bucchia

She/Her

Sessional Instructor

phoneN/A
location_onN/A

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry
Dina Del Bucchia is the author of the short-story collection Don’t Tell Me What to Do and of four collections of poetry: Coping with Emotions and Otters, Blind Items, Rom Com written with Daniel Zomparelli and It’s a Big Deal! She is a senior editor of Poetry Is Dead magazine, the artisti...Read more

Research Area

Fiction | Poetry

Martin Kinch

Martin Kinch

He/HIm

Sessional Instructor

phoneN/A
location_onBuchanan E458
Martin Kinch’s practice embraces film, theatre, television, opera, and radio. As a screenwriter, story editor, director and/or producer he has worked on over 50 produced screen and television projects. Throughout his impressive career, spanning four decades and multiple Canadian cities, Martin ...Read more
Adjunct Professors

A.W. Hopkins

A.W. Hopkins

he/him

Adjunct Professor

Research Area

Screenwriting
A.W. Hopkins is a member of the N’Quatqua First Nation. He is an award winning writer and director. He has a Bachelor of Arts with a Communications Major and an MFA in Creative Writing focusing on Writing For The Screen. A.W attended the Canadian Film Centre, Norman Jewison Directors’ Lab 2020. ...Read more

Research Area

Screenwriting

Michele McMahon

Michele McMahon

she/her

Adjunct Professor

Michele McMahon has over 15 years’ experience producing award-winning Canadian television. For the past seven years she was a Production Executive for Bell Media where she was the executive on the drama series: Transplant (CTV, NBC, SKY), Cardinal (CTV, BBC2), 19-2 (BRAVO) and Motive (CT...Read more

Zac Hug

Zac Hug

he/him

Adjunct Professor

Zac Hug is a television writer, playwright, essayist, and is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (BFA, Acting) and of University of British Columbia (MFA, Creative Writing). Zac’s plays have been produced at the New York Fringe Festival, and the Williamstown Theater Festival workshop. H...Read more