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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.
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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.
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Creative Writing current students and alumni comprised five of the ten finalists in the EVENT 2010 Creative Nonfiction competition. Congratulations to winner, Chris Urquhart!
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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.
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Creative Writing MFA student Kaitlin Fontana has been chosen by Evelyn Lau to share her Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award.
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When Random House received Creative Writing MFA Alumna, Carol Shaben's thesis manuscript, they didn't wait long to acquire it.
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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.
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Creative Writing Optional Residency MFA, Krista Foss featured in the National Post for Journey Prize Questionnaire.
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Creative Writing BFA alumni, Paolo Javier, named Poet Laureate of NYC's Queen.
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Creative Writing MFA Alumni and students, Andrew Clark, Oliver Kellhammer, Alex Leslie and Mitch Miyagawa received honorable mentions at the National Magazine Awards.
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Congratulations to Creative Writing MFA Alumnus, Dave Deveau, who received the 2010 Gordon Armstrong Playwright's Rent Award.
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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.
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Creative Writing Student, Nicola Campbell made the 2009 USBBY Outstanding International Books list for her Children's book Shin-Chi's Canoe.
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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.
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Creative Writing congratulates MFA Creative Writing Alumna Melanie Little on her new position at House of Anansi Press as Senior Editor of Canadian Fiction.
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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.
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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.
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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"
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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.
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Creative Writing Arnold and Nancy Cliff Writer in Residence: Steven Galloway.
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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.
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UBC MFA in Creative Writing alumni Robert Paul Weston’s book, Zorgamazoo, named one of the Top 10 First Novels for Youth: 2008.
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visit the Zorgamazoo web site.
After a successful launch this past fall, the UBC Alumni Book Club is back for 2009.
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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).
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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.
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We'd love to hear from you! If you are a UBC Creative Writing faculty or staff member, we invite you to contact us with your news and successes.
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.
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
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.
The Creative Writing Program welcomes Steven Galloway as an Assistant Professor to its prestigious Faculty Roster.
The novel The Knife Sharpener’s Bell (Coteau Books) by Creative Writing Assistant Professor Rhea Tregebov has been chosen by the jury as the winning recipient in the the category of Prize in English Fiction and Poetry on a Jewish Theme of the prestigious J.I. Segal 2010 Awards. The prize is to be awarded at a public ceremony on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 
at 7:30 p.m. in the Gelber Conference Centre, 1 Cummings Square (5151 Côte Ste-Catherine Road), Montreal. The awards, presented every two years, are designed to encourage and reward creative works on Jewish themes. The last winner in 2008 was Leonard Cohen for The Book of Longing. Other past award winners include Irving Layton and Adele Wiseman.
Assistant Professor, Rhea Tregebov's The Knife Sharpener's Bell, is one of the Globe and Mail top 100 books for 2010.
Optional Residency instructor, Lisa Moore is amongst the Canadian authors who've made the long list for the IMPAC Dublin award, the world's richest literary prize for single work of fiction. Click here to read more
Creative Writing Instructor, Deborah Campbell takes gold at the 33rd Annual National Magazine Awards.
Optional Residency Creative Writing Instructor, Terry Glavin, received an honourable mention at the 33rd Annual National Magazine Awards.
Creative Writing Program instructors, Annabel Lyon and Susan Musgrave have been shortlisted for the 2010 CAA Literary Awards.
Creative Writing Optional Residency Instructor, Karen Solie wins the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize.
Click here to read more in the National Post
Both UBC Creative Writing Professor Rhea Tregebov and first year grad student Karen Shklanka have been shortlisted for the ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Awards (2009).
Shklanka’s first book of poetry, Sumac’s Red Arms, was shortlisted in the Poetry category.
Tregebov's novel, The Knife Sharpener's Bell, was shortlisted in the Fiction (General) category.
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ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention to librarians and booksellers of the literary achievements of independent publishers and their authors. ForeWord is the only American review trade journal devoted exclusively to books from independent houses.
The Book of the Year awards bring readers, librarians, and booksellers together to select their top categories as well as choose the winning titles. Their decisions are based on editorial excellence, professional production, and originality.
Winners in each category and overall fiction and nonfiction prize winners will be announced in New York City on May 25, 2010 at BookExpo America.
MFA Optional residency Program Adjunct, Brian Brett’s much awarded Trauma Farm was shortlisted for two BC Book Prizes, one for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and one for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.
Creative Writing Program Adjunct Instructor and MFA Creative Writing Alumni, Annabel Lyon was shortlisted for the BC Book Prize's Ethel Wilson Prize in Fiction
Click on the following link to read Jim Bartley of the Globe and Mail's review of Creative Writing Assistant Professor Rhea Tregebov's first novel The Knife Sharpener's Bell.
Creative Writing Optional Residency Instructor, Brian Brett received the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize for Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life.
Creative Writing Instructor, Annabel Lyon’s debut novel The Golden Mean was awarded the $25,000 Writer’s Trust Award for Fiction.
THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO, written by Creative Writing Lecturer Steven Galloway, has been longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Read the story in the National Post
Read more about the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Creative Writing MFA alumna, Annabel Lyon is one of ten long-listed for the prestigious Giller with her first novel, The Golden Mean.
Creative Writing Instructor, Richard Van Camp celebrates the launch of his new book, The Moon of Letting Go at the First Nations House of Learning at UBC.
Creative Writing Assistant Professor Rhea Tregebov's debut novel "...The Knife Sharpener's Bell is a compelling story, made memorable by the poet's eye."
The Knife Sharpener's Bell
Quill & Quire September
2009
Coteau Book Reviews
Article by Ami Sands Brodoff, author.
Rhea Tregebov's debut novel opens with a man boarding a train. The setting is Winnipeg in the winter of 1935, and eight-year-old Annette Gershon watches as her poppa is swallowed by the black beast in the train station. Tregebov plunges the reader into the child's terror at the prospect of being separated from her father: the train is a metal monster, its shifting black body hissing and snorting, and we are made to feel the scratchy wool of Avram Gershon's tweed coat, to smell the lingering smoke from his pipe.
This prologue showcases Tregebov's strengths. The author of six books of poetry as well as a handful of picture books for young children, the Vancouver-based writer's gifts are for image and the accretion of sensuous detail; these are used deftly to build and deepen character. The ominous image in the novel's title first appears when Annette is quarantined in hospital with scarlet fever. The clang of the knife sharpener's bell threads throughout the story, a dark motif linking far-flung countries.
The story of a Jewish family who make the journey from Depression-era Winnipeg to Stalinist Russia Рand back again to Canada in the 1950s Рthe novel is a tale of transport, in all of its diverse meanings: to travel; to be carried away with emotion; to banish.
Some of the book's early scenes founder, burdened as they are by lengthy passages of family history that bury the narrative. However, once Tregebov settles into Annette's childhood in Winnipeg, and later, the family's journey to Odessa, the novel takes off. Annette and her parents are indelible characters. Avram is particularly memorable; a big-hearted delicatessen owner who feeds not only the neighbourhood Рmostly on credit Рbut also the sparrows that alight on his fingertips and head. The Knife Sharpener's Bell is a compelling story, made memorable by the poet's eye.
Bookstore Reading and Signing with
Creative Writing Program Adjunt Instructor, Jessica Berger Gross
enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer
by Jessica Berger Gross
Bookstore Reading and Signing
Saturday September 5th 1-3
Once Upon A Huckleberry Bush
4387 Main Street, Vancouver (near 28th St. corner)
telephone: (604) 876-4010
To order online in Canada:
Creative Writing Adjunct Instructor, Chris Smith receives a BCAC Grant for his upcoming book on the future of the Northwest Passage.
Creative Writing adjunct instructor, Chris Smith, receives a gold medal for profiling Terry McBride for Vancouver Magazine at the 27th Annual Western Magazine Awards.
Creative Writing Optional Residency Program Instructor Sioux Browning nominated for Western Magazine Award.
UBC Creative Writing Assistant Professor Rhea Tregebov participates in UNESCO's new language preservation initiative.
Creative Writing instructor, Jessica Berger Gross's new book enLIGHTened is mentioned in the Washington Post ...
Creative Writing Instructor Jessica Berger Gross' new book enLIGHTened coming out at the beginning of the summer, 2009:
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Meet your new best yoga-and-healthy-eating friend in this smart, accessible, and funny memoir of dieting and discovery.
For years, Jessica struggled with fluctuating weight and bouts of unhappiness. Like many of us, she found comfort in food and craved cigarettes and self-confidence. Then one day Jessica took her first yoga class in Katmandu. She lost 40 pounds and changed her life forever.
In enLIGHTened, Jessica shares the core principles of yoga philosophyѮot the poses and postures, but the ancient system of ideas that lies behind them, drawn from a 2000-year-old text called the Yoga Sutras. The inspiration for this memoir-driven diet and health book is studied by devout yoga students and teachers, and offers answers to eating smartly, living right, and losing weight.
Jessica goes beyond yoga's merge into mainstream Рbeyond trendy diets, unsustainable exercise routines, and the quest for the perfect figure. Using spiritual philosophy, and personal stories everyone can relate to, she sets the reader on a journey to self-acceptance, personal peace, and long-term health.
The BC Book Prizes committee announced that Creative Writing instructor and Rogers Communications Chair, Andreas Schroeder and Creative Writing MFA Alumni, Lee Henderson have been short-listed for the prestigious Ethel Wilson Prize for their most recent work Henderson's The Man Game and Schroeder's Renovating Heaven.
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Lee Henderson's debut novel, The Man Game, was described by Walrus Magazine as a ҳprawling, brilliant, playful, heartbreaking, and eminently wise book that considers its world with unusual bravery and purpose.ӠIt has also received rave reviews in the National Post, Quill & Quire and CBC Radio.
Andreas Schroeder is the award-winning author of 22 books, including most recently Renovating Heaven, an autobiographical novel. Other books include Shaking It Rough, Dustship Glory, File Of Uncertainties, The Late Man, Toccata In 'D', and three collections of outrageous scams and hoaxes. His books have been finalists for the Governor-General's Award, the Sealbooks First Novel Award, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction. He won a National Magazine Award in 1990, a Stephen Leacock Award in 1997, and a Canadian Association of Journalists Best Investigative Journalism Award in 1991. He currently holds the Rogers Communications Chair in Creative Nonfiction at UBC.
Former Writing for Children's Professor, Sue Ann Alderson, is a current TD Children's Book Centre Finalist for the Eco-Diary of Kiran Singer and won the 2007 ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award in the young adult category at the 2008 American Library Association Conference in Anaheim, CA in June 2008.
Creative Writing Assistant Professor, Maureen Medved, receives the Artistic Achievement Award by Vancouver Women in Film and Television.
Read more here: www.womeninfilm.ca (pdf)
Sessional Instructor Steven Galloway receives a Borders 2008 Original Voices Award for his debut novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo
Read more here
Steven Galloway's novel picked for popular
U.K. book club
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MICHAEL POSNER
From Monday's Globe and Mail
December 28, 2008 at 5:12 PM EST
One of Britain's most popular book clubs has selected two Canadian novels for its 2009 reading list.
TV hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan put Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo and Winnipegger Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle on their top 10 list.
Galloway's book (Random House) was inspired by a musician who played outdoors for 22 days during the mid-1990s siege of Sarajevo, commemorating 22 lives lost during the shelling. It made the 2008 Giller Prize's long list and was sold to 18 countries before publication.
Davidson earned an advance of $1.25-million U.S. for his gothic romance novel, his first, which took him seven years to write. It has since been published into 26 languages.
Books chosen by Madeley and Finnigan Ѡformer Channel 4 presenters who now appear on digital TV channel Watch Ѡoften become bestsellers in Britain. For example, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, which they featured in 2006, became the U.K.'s fastest-selling paperback of all-time.
Canadian books previously accorded Richard-and-Judy honours include Lori Lansens's The Girls and The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Governor General Literary Awards
Maureen Medved, Assistant Professor's novel, and Catherine Banks, Master of Fine Arts student in Creative Writing in the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing Program, are both celebrating their 2008 Governor General's Literary Awards after yesterday's announcement from the Canada Council for the Arts.
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UBC Creative Writing celebrates professor and student's Governor General Literary Awards
Maureen Medved, Assistant Professor, and Catherine Banks, Master of Fine Arts student in Creative Writing in the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing Program, are both celebrating their 2008 Governor General's Literacy Awards after yesterday's announcement from the Canada Council for the Arts.
I am absolutely thrilled with the translation, with the work of the translators, Louise Chabalier and Claire Chabalier, and with the award,Ӡ remarked Medved.
Maureen Medved's novel, The Tracey Fragments, received the Governor General's award in the French translation category. Earlier this year, The Tracy Fragments was adapted into a film staring Oscar and Golden Globe nominated actress Ellen Page and was nominated for six Genies.
"It's so fantastic to watch Tracey as she embarks on her many journeys since her birth," Medved added. "I am especially grateful to the publishers -- both the original publisher, House of Anansi, as well as the publisher of the translation, Les Allusifs, and all the people along my own journey who believed in Tracey and this book."
Keith Maillard, Chair of UBC's Creative Writing program affirmed, "the award that Maureen Medved's novel received is a strong reflection of the international success her book has achieved." Maillard adds, that success also reflects of the level of experience embodied by the professors who teach in UBC's Creative Writing Program.
Catherine Banks received her award in the Drama category for her play titled Bone Cage. Banks is currently a student in the Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts Optional Residency program.
"Creative Writing students and alumni, such as Banks, continue to demonstrate the traditional excellence of our program," explained Maillard. Banks' award also testifies to the power of our on-line program Рthe MFA Optional Residency Program to attract remarkable students to UBC.
The 2008 Governor General's Literacy Awards, which are funded, administered and promoted by the Canada Council, are given in the categories of fiction, poetry , drama, non-fiction, children's literature (text and illustration) and translation, in English and French. This year marks the 72nd presentation of the Governor General's Literacy Awards, Canada's oldest and most prestigious awards for English- and French-language Canadian literature. For more information on the 2008 Governor General's Literacy Awards and the winners, visit: www.canadacouncil.ca
The Creative Writing Program at UBC is Canada's premier creative writing program. We provide a uniquely comprehensive opportunity for writers to develop their craft within the studio environment, offering BFA and MFA degrees with study in nine separate literary genres as well as an innovative MFA by distance education. For more information on the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing program, visit: www.creativewriting.ubc.ca.
Chair of the Creative Writing Program, Keith Maillard
Chair of the Creative Writing Program, Keith Maillard's poetry will be published in the Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 anthology.
Click here to read more.
UBC Creative Writing Instructor and Rogers Communications Chair, Andreas Schroeder, celebrates the release of his new book: Renovating Heaven.
Click here to view book cover.
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An autobiographical novel about Mennonite life in British Columbia from the 1950's to the 1970's. Schroeder's family settles on a small Fraser Valley farm and proceeds to try making sense of the perplexing mores and values of "The English" who surround them. Hilarious, bizarre and heart-breaking by turns, this account fills in the gap between Rudy Wiebe's "Of This Earth" (a generation older), and Miriam Toews' "A Complicated Kindness" (a generation younger). Well-known New Yorker writer Edith Iglauer called it "a masterpiece"; writer/publisher Howie White called it "humorous, tragic and masterfully written".
Welcome Song for Baby, a board book by First Nations author Richard Van Camp (Creative Writing Sessional Instructor) has won the Gold Award in the 2008 National Parenting Publications Awards NAPPA).
Welcome Song for Baby has previously been selected for the BC Book for Babies Project and also for the Manitoba Healthy Child initiative.
There are already a lot of babies chewing on this book!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
5:15 to 6:30
Green College, Graham House Lounge, UBC Campus
Don't miss the opportunity to hear Ray Hsu (Creative Writing Postdoctoral Fellow) read from his poetry Anthropy (Nightwood, 2004).
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Hsu's first book-length collection, is a work of extraordinary range and precision. Excavating sites of human cruelty and endurance, intimacy and experience, Hsu puts forth the language to lead us into the inferno of our time. Anthropy was the winner of the Gerald Lampert Award for Poetry (2005) and was shortlisted for the Trillium Award for Poetry (2005).
"Grainy and eclectic the pleasures of Anthropy lie in watching an inventive mind excavate public history and private life for lessons about memory, identity and progress." (The Toronto Star)
"Ғay Hsu's Anthropy reminds me of Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter, with its disjunctive narrative style and figurative language.... This is not garden-variety Canadian lyric narrative. It's a hard book, but the poetry is simple at times and the lyrics beautiful." (Canadian Literature )
Ray Hsu is a poet, activist, and scholar. His poems have been published in such journals and magazines as The Walrus, New American Writing, and Fence, and his work has appeared in such anthologies as Breathing Fire II: Canada's New Poets and The Echoing Years: An Anthology of Poetry from Canada & Ireland. He was featured in The Bravo! documentary series Heart of a Poet. Hsu's collaborations with composers, filmmakers, and installation artists have been exhibited, performed, and screened at the International Festival of Authors, the University of Toronto, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Deborah Campbell, Adjunct Instructor and Vancouver freelance writer, is the 2008 winner of the recently redesigned Dave Greber Freelance Writers Magazine Award for her article published in the April 2008 issue of Harper's magazine entitled Exodus: Where will Iraq Go Next? Based on the two months she spent living among Iraqi refugees in Syria, the article is considered one of the most comprehensive accounts of the human story behind the ongoing Iraqi refugee crisis. Shirley Dunn, developer of the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Magazine Award, will present the $2000 prize to Ms. Campbell on September 28, 2008 at the Word on The Street Book and Magazine Festival in Vancouver. More details
Faculty member Linda Svendsen joins Alma Lee (formerly of the Vancouver International Writers' Festival) and other literary luminaries as part of the Vancouver World City of Literature steering committee. The intent: to have Vancouver designated a UNESCO City of Literature. Read more on the Vancouver Sun.
Congratulations to Adjunct Professor Gary Geddes. Gary is this year's recipient of the Lieutenant-Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, a prize that recognizes BC Writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence.
Contratulations to sessional faculty member Steven Galloway for his new book, The Cellist of Sarajevo. Read an interview with Steven on the CBC Website.
"Though the setting is the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990's, this gripping novel transcends time and place. It is a universal story, and a testimony to the struggle to find meaning, grace, and humanity, even amid the most unimaginable horrors." -- Khaled Hosseini
"A gripping story of Sarajevo under siege." РJ. M Coetzee
"Galloway's novel does the work of a good fiction: it transports you to a situation that might be alien to you, makes it familiar, and so brings understanding. While reading The Cellist of Sarajevo you are imaginatively there, in Sarajevo, as the mortar shells are falling and snipers are seeking to kill you as you cross a street. Your mind's eye sees, your moral sense is outraged: your full humanity is being exercised." Yann Martel
Rights to The Cellist of Sarajevo, released in Canada in April, have been sold to the US, UK, Australia / New Zealand, Germany, Italy, France, Holland, Spain, Catalan, Brazil, Portugal, China, Japan, Denmark, Taiwan and Bosnia. Critical praise is pouring in from all over. Read the National Post review. Read the Globe & Mail review. Click here to read this Story in the Globe and Mail.
Congratulations to faculty member Maureen Medved and The Tracey Fragments team who were nominated for 6 Genies (including Best Adaptation for Maureen, Best Director, Best Actress, Editing, and more).
The film adaptation of Maureen's book is being re-released, with showings across Canada and in the US listed on the Tracey blog. See the trailer on Apple.
The film was chosen as one of Canada's Top Ten of 2007, one of the TIFF Top 10 and has recently been screened in Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Taiwan.
Actress Ellen Page, who plays Tracey, has also been in the entertainment news recently due to her Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film Juno, as well as her nomination for a Golden Globe.
Congratulations to Adjunct Professor Deborah Peraya! Her feature film, "Love and Other Dilemmas," recently opened in Vancouver. Wedding day jitters take on new meaning as Love and Other Dilemmas has an exclusive theatrical run at the Empire Granville 7 Theatre in Vancouver, beginning on Friday February 1, 2008.
See the trailer on YouTube.
UBC's Creative Writing Program promotes unique learning opportunities through its Visiting Writers program
(online and on-campus)
Recent visiting writers (online and on-campus):
During her 20 years at UBC, Pat Rose has helped hundreds of fledgling writers navigate their careers at UBC and then tracked their development in the professional world.
Rose, the long-time Secretary in the Department of Creative Writing, is known for her skills fostering a deep sense of community amongst students and staff. She organizes department socials and student readings, sometimes demanding that participants come in costumes. Her bake, thrift and book sales have raised funds for UBC's United Way campaigns over the years.
Brightness, colour, humour and constancy are words that colleagues and students use to describe Rose. A stalwart on her dragon boat crew, she is also appreciated for her ability to raise money and enthusiasm fundraising for cancer and AIDS runs and walks.
Click here to read full press coverage.
