Navigation

Home Prospective Students Current Students Online Registration Alumni Faculty and Staff About Us Opportunities Contact Us

Site Search

Creative Writing Course Schedule

>>View schedule

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

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

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

View more news items

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:
Prospective Students - Masters of Fine Arts - Awards & Aid

The Creative Writing Program offers a two-year studio course of resident study in which apprentice writers are offered instruction by faculty who work in a variety of literary and dramatic forms. The program leads to a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

Awards & Aid:

This is a new financial award program in which selected incoming MFA students are awarded scholarships at the discretion of the Creative Writing Program.

The Creative Writing Program received minimal GSI funding for the upcoming academic year of 2009/2010 and we have allocated these funds to the top-ranked incoming Master's students as entrance scholarships to students in both the Residency and Optional Residency Programs.

MISCELLANEOUS GRADUATE AWARDS

Graduate Awards frequently sends notices of scholarships, fellowships, competitions, travel awards and these are posted on the Graduate Advisor's bulletin board throughout the year as well as the Graduate Studies website: www.grad.ubc.ca.

Amounts vary from year to year, but the current total budget is $20,000. The Program awards G.A.s for specific jobs that contribute to the functioning of the program from September through April.

Priority is given to the graduate students who edit PRISM international, the program's literary magazine, which has been edited by graduate students since 1977. Any money not already awarded to PRISM editors is given for other services around the Program, proportional to their importance. Students interested in becoming editors or doing other work as G.A.s should proceed as follows:

• PRISM international
  It is strongly recommended that prospective editors take CrWr 521 (Managing and Editing a Small Magazine) in their first year and attend PRISM's editorial board meetings. Prospective editors must also be M.F.A. students. During the fall, the next year's editors are chosen by the current editors and PRISM's editorial board. There are two paid positions: Executive (managing) Editor and Editor. Each of these positions are sometimes split by two students, who divide the workload and funds between them. Students of CrWr 521 and anyone else who wishes to become involved with the editing of PRISM may volunteer as first readers and give editorial responses to manuscripts at the weekly board meetings. Those students interested in future editorial positions must not only attend the board meetings, but become involved in the production, distribution, and promotion of PRISM. The purpose of the board meetings is to garner the input of each member, allowing the editors to produce the magazine as efficiently as possible. Extended literary debate takes place afterwards, but efficiency of selection and production is dictated by a submission rate of 3,000 manuscripts per annum.
• For more information about PRISM, please contact the magazine's staff and/or see the PRISM website.
• Producer - Brave New Playwrights
  This requires the services of a graduate student to select and organize student plays, directors and actors in consultation with the Executive Producer, Bryan Wade. Brave New Play Rites is presented in the second term at the B.C. Tel Theatre, Chan Centre. Please contact Bryan Wade to confirm the status of this position.

TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS

Creative Writing offers partial Graduate Teaching Assistantship positions for most of our second year classes. Please contact the Program Administrator for more information. Students may also apply for other Teaching Assistantships within and outside of the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing.

For programs following completion of second year undergraduate, professional diploma, or post-graduate programs; or equivalent private instruction, offering up to $3,500 for full-time winter studies. The award is available for full-time study at recognized post-secondary institutions or academies without restriction of country. Assistance is available for a maximum of six years of full-time study at an institution, or three years equivalent private instruction. Applicants should demonstrate a first-class standing in an eligible field of study. Preference will be given to applicants who have resided in British Columbia for at least one year prior to application. Artists currently established as professional in their field are not eligible for assistance.

Deadline & Application Forms - Contact:
B.C. Arts Council, Box 9819, Stn. Prov. Govt., Victoria, B.C. V8V 9W3
Ph:(250)356-1718
Email: BCArtsCouncil@gems2.gov.bc.ca
Web: www.bcartscouncil.ca

Canadian student loans are government-funded repayable financial assistance. Eligibility is determined by a standard means test. Students are required to apply for student loans through their province of residence. See the UBC Student Services website www.students.ubc.ca/finance/loans.cfm for further information.

Non-Canadian students should inquire in their country of residence regarding student loans.

UBC also offers bursaries to students who have student loans. There are general bursaries available to all UBC students as well as a few bursaries designated specifically for Creative Writing students. See the UBC Student Services website www.students.ubc.ca/finance/awards.cfm?page=bursaries

Please note that students are also eligible for bursaries and loans to cover the summer term, since they are enrolled over the summer.

There may be several work-study positions available to students who are receiving student loans. These include the production of Grapevine, the department newsletter, as well as departmental publicity, and managing the PRISM international fiction contest.