Navigation
Quick Links
MFA Program
Optional-Residency MFA
Booming Ground
Handbooks
Copyright at UBC
Site Search
Creative Writing Course Schedule
UBC Creative Writing Program:
Teaching Assistantships for 2013/2014 Academic Session
View application details
Download application details
The Creative Writing Program invites applications for two full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor positions, to begin
July 1, 2013.
View application details
UBC Creative Writing is on Second Life.
Join us in our virtual classroom
Get the latest on UBC Creative Writing events at Grapevine
Visit Grapevine
UBC's Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Program
MA in Children's Literature
Congratulations to Creative Writing alumna, Judy McFarlane, who was shortlisted for the Canada Writes CBC Non-Fiction Award this year, for her piece, "After, and Before". Visit CBC Writes
MFA Creative Writing alumna Aislinn Hunter, author of Stay, a 2002 fictional novel, is having her novel made into a film. Filming began in Roundstone, Ireland last month and resumed in Montreal where it is expected to wrap up mid-July and proceed to post-production. Stay (a Telefilm / Irish Film Board co-production) is expected to make its premiere late 2013, or early 2014. Visit Aislinn Hunter
Congratulations to MFA Alumnus Trevor Corkum! Corkum's short story "You Were Loved" (originally published in the Malahat Review) has been nominated for the 2012 Journey Prize, and will appear in Journey Prize Stories 24, coming out this October by McCelland and Stewart. The Journey Prize
View more news items 
Congratulations to Kevin Spenst, MFA Alumnus and first place winner in the poetry category for the Lush Triumphant Literary Award.
Lush Triumphant Literary Award
Congratulations to BFA alumnus Lucas J. W. Johnson, whose story was recently published in Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up anthology edited by Steve Berman.
Visit Amazon
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
Elena E. Johnson (MFA 2009) was one of three finalists for the 2011 Alfred G. Bailey Prize. The Bailey Prize is awarded annually for the best yet-to-be-published poetry manuscript. She was also a finalist for this year's CBC Literary Awards.
Wade Kinley, a joint first year MFA student in CrWr and Theatre, has received an internship with the Lark Play Development Center in New York City.
Creative Writing Alumna, Josie Mitchell recently won a cash prize for third place in the Vancouver Cultural Centre's Young Playwrights Competition for her one-act play.
The Creative Writing Program welcomes Steven Galloway as an Assistant Professor to its prestigious Faculty Roster.
Congratulations to current MFA Creative Writing student, Kevin Spenst. Kevin has been shortlisted for the The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. The prize is awarded annually to the best poetry manuscript by an emerging Canadian writer.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing current students and alumni comprised five of the ten finalists in the EVENT 2010 Creative Nonfiction competition. Congratulations to winner, Chris Urquhart!
Click here to read more
Congratulations MFA student, Jordan Hall! Jordan Hall is the winner of the Samuel French 2010 Canadian Playwrights contest for her play, Kayak.
MFA Creative Writing Alumni to be published in Coming Attractions 10, edited by Mark Anthony Jarman.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing MFA student Kaitlin Fontana has been chosen by Evelyn Lau to share her Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award.
Click here to read more
When Random House received Creative Writing MFA Alumna, Carol Shaben's thesis manuscript, they didn't wait long to acquire it.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing Optional Residency MFA Alumna, Sarah Selecky's short-story collection This Cake is For the Party, has been long-listed for this year's Giller Prize.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing Optional Residency MFA, Krista Foss featured in the National Post for Journey Prize Questionnaire.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing BFA alumni, Paolo Javier, named Poet Laureate of NYC's Queen.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing MFA Alumni and students, Andrew Clark, Oliver Kellhammer, Alex Leslie and Mitch Miyagawa received honorable mentions at the National Magazine Awards.
Click here to read more
Congratulations to Creative Writing MFA Alumnus, Dave Deveau, who received the 2010 Gordon Armstrong Playwright's Rent Award.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing MFA Alumna, Susan Olding, received the Reader's Choice Award at the Creative Non-Fiction Collective ceremony at the Banff Centre on April 24th, 2010 for her essays from Pathologies.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing Student, Nicola Campbell made the 2009 USBBY Outstanding International Books list for her Children's book Shin-Chi's Canoe.
Click here to read more
BFA Creative Writing Major, Karina Melendez's poem, The Sound was Editors' Choice in Arc Poetry Magazine's 14 Annual Poem of the Year Contest and published in Arc 63: Winter 2010.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing congratulates MFA Creative Writing Alumna Melanie Little on her new position at House of Anansi Press as Senior Editor of Canadian Fiction.
Click here to read more
Current MFA, Rebekah Lopata's play What if I Don't will be presented at the third annual award-winning EBE Ensemble, festival of new one act plays in New York.
Click here to read more
Creative Writing students dominate the StudentWrites! Playwriting Competition 2009. Gillian Bennett took home first prize in the competition for her play 'Sick or Swim', while Brie Wittman and Shannon Campbell took home the second and third prize.
Visit www.greenthumb.bc.ca
MFA Creative Writing alumna, Elena Johnson, makes the shortlist for the Malahat Open Season Awards and the ARC Poem of the Year Contest.
Creative Writing Optional Residency MFA Student, Daniel Griffin, is a 2009 Finalist for the Journey Prize"
Read More
Producer Michael Parker plans to use Comic Con award scholarship to obtain a Masters of Fine Arts in Film Production and Creative Writing degree at UBC.
Read More
Creative Writing Arnold and Nancy Cliff Writer in Residence: Steven Galloway.
Read More
Kazat Poet in Residence at the Historic Joy KogawaHouse: 21 year old Akerke Mussabekova is a third-year student in the translation department at al-Farabi Kazakh National University, the country's largest and premier university, situated in Almaty. She is being hosted by Historic Joy Kogawa House and funded by the HSBC Poet in the City cultural exchange program.
UBC's Creative Writing Program is sad to note the passing of poet and MFA Creative Writing alumna Kuldip Gill on Sunday, May 10, 2009. Her poetry has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies such as In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry and Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women Poets.
Read more
UBC MFA in Creative Writing alumni Robert Paul Weston’s book, Zorgamazoo, named one of the Top 10 First Novels for Youth: 2008.
Read more or
visit the Zorgamazoo web site.
After a successful launch this past fall, the UBC Alumni Book Club is back for 2009.
Read more
Creative Writing MFA Alumna, Clea Young was recently nominated for the $10,000 McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for her short story Chaperone, published in Grain Magazine. This prize recognizes excellence in an emerging writer who has published a short story from an in-progress novel in a Canadian literary journal.
More on the Writers’ Trust of Canada and the McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize>
Creative Writing MFA alumnus, Lee Henderson, received a nomination for the 2008 Writers’ Trust Awards for his novel The Man Game. Henderson, who will be competing with award winning authors for this $25,000 fiction prize won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for The Broken Record Technique.
More on the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize>
Short story, “The Riot and a Girl” written by University of British Columbia MFA Creative Writing alumna Tsering Lama, was nominated by the Malahat Review to be published in The Journey Prize Stories 20, an anthology that showcases the best of Canada’s new writers.
Click here for more information on the Journey Prize>
Former Creative Writing Writer in Residence, Miriam Toews receives a nomination for the 2008 Writers’ Trust Awards for her novel The Flying Troutmans. Towes, who will be competing with award winning authors for this $25,000 fiction prize won the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2004 for her novel A Complicated Kindness.
More on the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize>
Elena E. Johnson, MFA Creative Writing student, celebrates as her poem is published in the anthology Rocksalt – Contemporary Poets of British Columbia as well as an honorable mention in THIS magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt (2008).
More details
UBC's Creative Writing Program is sad to note the passing of Ted Rogers, President and CEO of Rogers Communications, a company that has supported our work in Creative Writing.
Creative Writing Instructor, Deborah Campbell takes gold at the 33rd Annual National Magazine Awards.
Click here to read more
The Creative Writing Program at UBC: Welcome
Latest Headlines
Roslyn Muir Wins Odyssey Media Screenplay Challenge
The Birdwatcher, a dramatic screenplay by writer Roslyn Muir, MFA 2012, has won the 2013 Women in the Director's Chair Feature Film Award worth $120,000 in production services from the Vancouver film community. Details here.
Recent Accomplishments by Creative Writing Screenwriters
Students and alumni are making strides in the industry: from Hollywood North to Hollywood, CA. Check out some recent successes.
Join us in CRWR 200: Introduction to Creative Writing this Summer, taught by Steven Galloway
Singer-songwriters
Christine Fellows and John K. Samson (of The Weakerthans)
perform at UBC February 8, at 8:00 pm
The UBC School of Music, in partnership with the UBC Creative Writing Program, present Winnipeg singer-songwriters Christine Fellows and John K. Samson in performance at UBC in the Roy Barnett Recital Hall on February 8, 2013. Christine Fellows and John K. Samson will be joined by poet Rhea Tregebov and novelist Steven Galloway, both UBC faculty members. Works by all four creators will be featured in the concert. Fellows and Samson, Writers-in-residence at UBC in the UBC Creative Writing Program for 2012/13, will also participate in a roundtable discussion titled Music, Place, People: Popular Music and the Collaborative Act. The roundtable will take place on Friday February 8 at 3:15 pm in Gessler Hall (Room 116) in the Music Building at UBC.
- Roundtable Discussion: Friday, February 8 at 3:15 pm, Gessler Hall, Room 116) UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Road. Free and open to the public
- Concert: Friday, February 8 at 8pm in Barnett Hall at the UBC School of Music, 6361 Memorial Rd. Tickets are $15 available at the door – cash only. (Box office opens at 7:00pm)
Event Information (604) 822-5574
Join us as we celebrate the launch of three of our faculty's new books: Annabel Lyon's The Sweet Girl, Linda Svendsen's Sussex Drive and Rhea Tregebov's All Souls on October 3rd. Read more
Congratulations to Creative Writing Assistant Professor Annabel Lyon. Lyon's The Sweet Girl has been longlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Visit the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Congratulations Andreas Schroeder, recipient of the Graeme Gibson Award. Author Andreas Schroeder was presented with the Graeme Gibson Award by The Writers’ Union of Canada at its Annual General Meeting. Read the story
View More News Items
Congratulations to Chris Tarry, Opt-Res MFA student, who won a 2012 Juno Award (Recording Packaging of the Year award) for his CD "The Rest of the Story".
Stop by
the UBC Creative Writing and PRISM international booth at the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Chicago. Feb 29-March 3.
Creative Writing faculty member, Andreas Schroeder is the godfather of BC's non-fiction boom.
Read the story on the Globe and Mail
MFA Alumna Laura Trunkey won 3rd prize in Prairie Fire’s 2011 Fiction Contest, and MFA Alumni Jean Van Loon won third prize in their Non-Fiction contest.
Visit Prairie Fire
Amy Stuart, current MFA (Toronto), just won the Writers’ Union of Canada Annual Short Prose Competition for developing writers, a $2,500 prize for her story “The Roundness”. Another MFA, Kirsten Madsen (Whitehorse) was a finalist, as was an incoming MFA, Judy Major.
Visit the Writers' Union of Canada
Chris Tarry, current MFA (New York) has been nominated for two Juno Awards for his project "Rest of the Story". It is nominated for Best Contemporary Jazz CD and Best CD Packaging. Visit the Juno Awards
The 2012 Cliff Writer in Residence is Paulette Bourgeois, MFA alumna and creator of Franklin the Turtle.
Congratulations to Creative Writing Alumni, Zsuzsi Gartner and Lynn Coady – both shortlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller
Visit the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Congratulations to Creative Writing Faculty Andreas Schroeder, on his two newly published novels: DUSTSHIP GLORY and DUPED: True Stories of the World's Best Swindlers. Schroeder also has an essay titled The Joy of Ancient Marriers in a newly published collection of personal essays: SLICE ME SOME TRUTH.
Congratulations to MFA alumnus Michael Christie, a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Visit the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize
Congratulations to Event Magazine’s 2011 Non-Fiction Contest Winners, MFA student Chris Donahoe and MFA alumna Krissy Darch!
Visit Event Magazine
Congratulations to the 2011 Journey Prize shortlist finalists: Miranda Hill, a recent graduate of the Optional-Residency MFA Program, and Seyward Goodhand, who is nominated for a story published in PRISM sinternational. The $10,000 prize will be awarded on November 1st. The winning journal also gets an award of $2000. Journey Prize
The Writers Trust has just announced the finalists for the Hilary Weston Writers Trust prize for Nonfiction, and our very own alumna and Opt Res faculty member Charlotte Gill is one of the five finalists up for the richest nonfiction award in Canada. Charlotte's book Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe was recently published by Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation.
Each of the five finalists will receive $5,000, with the eventual prizewinner receiving a total of $60,000. The prize will be awarded in Toronto at Koerner Hall at the Telus Centre for Performance and Learning during an event and after-party on October 25.
Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize
Congratulations to Scotiabank Giller Prize 2011 Longlist Creative Writing alumni: Michael Christie, Zsuzsi Gartner and Genni Gunn!
Congratulations to Creative Writing current students and alumni who were nominated and received awards at the 2011 National Magazine Awards: Michael Christie, Lynn Coady, Kaitlin Fontana, Jeff Stautz, Kevin Patterson and Creative Writing's PRISM International magazine! Visit the National Magazine Awards
Adjunct Professor Maggie de Vries' Hunger Journeys wins the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize!
Postdoc teaching fellow Dr. Ray Hsu's Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon wins second place in the poetry category of this year's Alcuin Society Awards for Book Design.
Congratulations to Creative Writing Faculty: Maggie DeVries, Zsuzsi Gartner and Sarah Levitt, who are all finalists of the BC Book Prizes.
Creative Writing students, alumni and faculty shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards. Congratulations Teri Leah Armitage, Brian Brett, Meredith Hambrock, Zoe Stikeman, Shay Wilson and Gina Woolsey!
Congratulations to all the Creative Writing faculty, staff and alumni who dominated the winner's list of CBC Books first-ever book club awards, the Bookies:
Congratulations to Creative Writing BFA student, Gillian Bennett who won the National Screen institute-Canada Drama Prize!
Creative Writing Students respond to Maclean's "Too Asian".
MFA in Creative Writing Alumnus Michael Christie's debut collection of linked stories, The Beggar's Garden, to be published this month by HarperCollins Canada.
The Creative Writing Program congratulates MFA Creative Writing Alumna Alex Leslie on her collection of award winning stories, People Who Disappear, which will be available in the Spring of 2012 with Freehand Books.
Archived News
To read older news items, please visit our Archives page
