Mentors
Tamara Chandon (Non-fiction, Fiction)
Tamara Chandon is a writer and actor from Toronto, Ontario. Her first book, Freezer Cats, was published by Life Rattle Press in 2010. It features a collection of non-fiction stories about a year spent working at an emergency animal hospital. Tamara’s work has appeared in numerous Life Rattle publications since then and was featured in an issue of Mindwaves, the University of Toronto’s peer-reviewed journal of non-fiction prose. Tamara studied non-fiction at U of T, and has written about science, finance, community, food, and her own bizarre life. Recently, Tamara served as Director of the 2010/11 TheatreKairos writers’circle, a year-long writing intensive for emerging playwrights. This fall, Tamara graduates from Ryerson University’s post-graduate Publishing program, and begins her MFA studies in Creative Writing at UBC.
Emily Davidson (Poetry, Fiction)
Originally from Saint John, New Brunswick, Emily Davidson is an emerging writer and poet living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her poetry has appeared in The Fiddlehead, In the Red, and carte blanche, among others. Her work focuses on family, place, and the uncomfortable space between the said and the unsaid. Emily has a Bachelor of Arts, Honours in English from UNB Saint John, and is in the final year of her MFA in Creative Writing at UBC. She is a Teaching Assistant and was awarded a SSHRC graduate scholarship towards her thesis work in poetry.
Jordan Hall (Playwrighting, Screenwriting, Fiction)
Jordan Hall is an emerging artist whose work has been dubbed “stellar, insightful” by Plank Magazine, “thoughtful” by CBC Radio, and “vivid, memorable” by NOW. Her writing for the stage includes her short works Red, The Second Last Man on Earth, Annie & Izzy, and Asleep at the Wheel, as well as her full-length play, Kayak, which recently won Samuel French’s 2010 Canadian Playwright’s competition. Jordan’s plays have been produced across the country, most recently at the 2010 Femfest and Summerworks Festivals. She is developing her newest work, Travelling Light, as an Associate with the Playwrights Theatre Centre. Her first short film, Love Sucks, is currently in production in Toronto, and her second, Run Dry, is one of the winners of the 2011 Crazy8s short film competition. As a dramaturg, Jordan recently worked on the Dora-nominated Belle of Winnipeg with Keystone Theatre, and sits on the Board of Foundry Theatre. Find her at: www.jordanhall.ca
Auxiliary Mentors
Briana Brown (Playwrighting)
Originally from rural Ontario, Briana spent several years in Toronto after graduating from York University (BA Theatre Studies). She is happy to be in Vancouver completing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her plays have been performed as part of Factory Theatre’s LabCab Festival, Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip, Tarragon Theatre’s Spring Arts Fair, Sarasvati’s FemFest, and at fringe festivals across the country. Also a theatre director, she directed her most recent play, Almost, Again (Toronto Fringe, Best of Fringe 2010) which will appear in an anthology of short plays entitled Out on a Limb (Signature Editions). She worked for the Paprika Festival as the Program Director for their Playwrights in Residence Program (2010-2011), and was a member of the Canadian Stage Company’s Reading Committee (2009-2010). She will be directing a workshop presentation of the new musical Giant this December in Toronto.
Krissy Darch (Non-fiction, Fiction, Lyric and Libretto)
Krissy Darch recently won first place in Event Magazine’s Nonfiction Contest. She has work published and forthcoming in Megaphone, The Ubyssey, The Vancouver Observer, and Schema. Her writing was scored for performance at the Vancouver International Song Institute’s Art Song Lab, and her play Positions Held was produced by Brave New Playwrights. Her teaching interests include visual art and creative writing. She works with women in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.
Indrapramit Das (Fiction)
Indrapramit Das is a writer and artist from Kolkata, India. His fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Online, Redstone Science Fiction, New Scientist CultureLab, Apex Magazine, and is forthcoming in The Speculative Ramayana Anthology (Zubaan Books, India). Indrapramit was awarded the Jerome Bank Short Story Prize and The Elisabeth Doreen Shaw Russell Award in Creative Non-Fiction by the English Department at Franklin & Marshall College, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a BA in English and Creative Writing. His primary genre is speculative fiction, though he enjoys reading and writing any and all genres. Indrapramit is a graduate of the UBC Creative Writing MFA Program, and has received multiple scholarships and a Teaching Assistantship. He is also a reviewer for Tangent Online, a short fiction review magazine in the field of science-fiction and fantasy. He is working on a novel. For more, visit http://flavors.me/indra_das.
Leah Horlick (Poetry)
Leah Horlick is an emerging writer, poet, and spoken word artist from Saskatoon, SK. She is the recipient of a 2008 Short Grain Award for prose poetry, and a three-time finalist in the Saskatoon Poetry Slam for her work discussing queer and feminist experiences of the prairies. In 2010, she and artist Alison Roth Cooley published and hand-made a limited edition chapbook, wreckoning, through JackPine Press. Her first collection of poetry is forthcoming from Thistledown Press in the spring of 2012. She holds a B.A. with High Honours from the University of Saskatchewan in Languages & Linguistics, with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. Leah currently resides in Vancouver, completing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.
Will Johnson (Non-fiction, Fiction)
Will Johnson is a writer, journalist and photographer from Vancouver, B.C. He is currently completing his MFA in creative writing at UBC. His work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, OCW Magazine, This Side of West, Burner Mag, Pearls, Island Writer, The Martlet, The Whitehorse Star and The Ubyssey. Check out his blog at www.goodwilljohnson.com or follow him on Twitter @Goodwilljohnson
Marie Powell Mendenhall (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult)
Marie Powell Mendenhall (http://www.mepowell.com/) is a professional writer based in Saskatchewan, Canada. Her award-winning short stories and poetry appear in such literary markets as Room, Transition, Pandora’s Collective, WindFire, and even the Winnipeg Free Press. Scholastic recently published her nonfiction book Dragonflies Are Amazing! Her writing awards include first place in the SWG Short Manuscript Awards for children’s fiction. Her non-fiction articles, reviews, and essays appear in magazines, anthologies, and online markets across Canada and the US. As well, her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio, and on the Biography and History channels. She holds Master of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Journalism and Communications degrees, and teaches writing workshops for all ages. Currently she’s completing her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her thesis project is a young adult fantasy novel.
Sigal Samuel (Fiction, Non-Fiction)
Sigal Samuel is an emerging writer from Montreal, QC. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Walrus, Event, Descant, and Room, among other publications. Her literary nonfiction won Room’s 2010 Writing Contest, was a finalist in Event’s 2010 Nonfiction Contest, and was featured at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival. Sigal has written and produced five plays in Montreal and Vancouver. In 2011, Hebrew won Solo Collective Theatre’s Emerging Playwrights’ Competition, and Onomatopoeia won The Cultch’s Young Playwrights’ Competition. Sigal is also a book and film reviewer for This, Schema, and PRISM international. She is currently at work on her first novel. Find her at: www.sigalsamuel.com
Natalie Thompson (Poetry)
Natalie Thompson is a prairie poet originally from Regina, SK, currently residing in Vancouver. Some of her best work has been published in Grain, PRISM International, The Tyee online news journal, and Maisonneuve magazine. As a Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduating student from the University of British Columbia, she is currently working on her thesis manuscript of poetry entitled “Lush”. She teaches for and coordinates the UBC Creative Writing Faculty’s program, New Shoots. This high school outreach program works to ensure that Vancouver School Board classrooms are given the opportunity to have enthusiastic creative writing MFA students inspire young minds to see what windows and doors language can open.
Sarah Tsiang (Poetry, Children’s Lit, Fiction)
Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang is the author of Flock of Shoes (Annick Press, 2010) and Sweet Devilry (Oolichan Books, 2011), a collection of poetry. She has three new books forthcoming with Annick Press, Dogs Don’t Eat Jam , Warriors and Wailers, 100 Jobs in Ancient China that you might have relished or reviled (non-fiction), and The Stone Hatchlings. Her work has been published and translated internationally, as well as named to the OLA (Ontario Library Association) Best Bets for children 2010 and shortlisted for Book of The Year. She currently also teaches creative writing through the Queen’s University SEEDS program.
Cara Woodruff (Fiction, Nonfiction)
Cara Woodruff is a writer and high school English teacher living in Vancouver. She is the current fiction and nonfiction editor at UBC’s PRISM international magazine and completing her MFA. She is working on a collection of short stories and a novella.
Janine Young (Fiction, Poetry)
Janine Alyson Young is an emerging fiction writer and poet from the Sunshine Coast, BC. She is currently completing her MFA at the University of British Columbia and has a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria. Her work has been published in This Side of West.