Hone Your Craft with the VIU Creative Writing Association
Do you enjoy writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scripts, or academic essays? Maybe you don’t like writing as much but you love correcting grammar and sentence structure. If any of the above apply to you, VIU’s Creative Writing Association (VCWA) would love to have you. Commonly known as “CREW Club,” VCWA is a weekly meeting run … Continued
Portal 2022
VIU’s student-run and full-colour annual literary magazine is going to be celebrated in-person for the first time in three years thanks to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. The launch of the new issue will celebrate the accomplishments of the nearly 90 VIU student contributors since 2020. Portal 2022, on newsstands across the country in May, … Continued
Aimee Wall’s Debut
This interview first appeared in an episode of Portal Magazine’s Portfolio series on YouTube, and has been edited for written format. * * * I found myself on Giller Prize-nominated author Aimee Wall’s website after my professor said I needed more biographical details for my book review on Wall’s book We, Jane. My eyes landed on … Continued
Joe Enns
The balancing point of what you want to do and what you need to do to sustain yourself can seem like a near-invisible wire. When I talked to Creative Writing and Journalism (CREW) student Joe Enns, it struck me that he seemed to have cracked the code to living as close to a balanced life … Continued
Global Storytelling
The latest entry in the Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series took place on Friday, February 11. Creative Writing and Journalism professors Craig Taylor and Dr. Sonnet L’Abbé presented on “Listening to The World / Storying A Place” in Malaspina Theatre. It was the second of three events in VIU’s Spring 2022 Colloquium Series, and took … Continued
Publishing
I check my inbox outside my English classroom and see a new email from The Malahat Review. They’ve decided not to accept the short story I’d sent for their consideration. They say one of the characters was unrealized. I had cut a significant section building his character at the suggestion of one of my Creative … Continued
Robert Hilles’ Book Launch
VIU Creative Writing and Journalism professor Robert Hilles has a book launch coming up this Sunday, October 3rd. The event will be for not one, but two new books: a novel called Don’t Hang Your Soul on That and From God’s Angle, a poetry collection. The launch will take place virtually, via a Zoom webinar … Continued
Wildflowers
The roses were decaying, petal by petal. Green leaves overtaken by patches and mottling spasms of brown and grey. The edges and undersides crinkling as though previously burned. They lay crumpled in the trash can, stems twisted and crinkled in all the wrong ways, blossoms and blooms frozen in time except for the march of … Continued
VIU Student to Appear in Seasonal Short Story Anthology
Digital media and creative writing student Nicola Kapron is being published in a spooky new indie anthology called Little Girl Lost: Thirteen Tales of Youth Disrupted on October 15. Her piece, titled “Based on a True Story,” will appear alongside 12 other tales. “[The anthology] contains a number of spooky stories, making it a seasonal treat. … Continued
Glitter
It took Lydia five minutes to pry Pointer away from the door, where he growled and barked incessantly. With one hand buried in his silken gold coat she cracked the door with the other, the dog howling in distress. “Can’t you read?” Lydia yelled over the wails from Pointer, and then flung the door open. … Continued
A thought on impermanence
When I hear the words “nothing lasts forever,” I think cliché. We’ve heard those words repeated so many times, but it’s a simple truth. “Nothing lasts forever,” so enjoy the moment while you can. I came to VIU in 2015 for the creative writing program. I hadn’t been to Nanaimo except for a campus tour … Continued
Write of Passage no. 3: This column has been workshopped
I write both fiction and nonfiction. One of my current projects is a memoir about my tour in Afghanistan and return to Canada with cancer. I made it home okay, but the side effects of chemo while dealing with trauma almost killed me. The inspiration isn’t there with this project like it is with my … Continued
Write of Passage no. 2: Into the realm of the dead
The first ghost story I remember hearing came from my Irish-descended grandfather. I was about seven years old at the time, and we were sitting around the kitchen table on the farm. The conversation was amongst adults and I just happened to be in the room. Some neighbours, he said, had just buried their father. … Continued
Write of Passage no. 1: Writers write
VIU students have been contributing to The Nav for 50 years now. During that time, they’ve also submitted to Omniverse, Stump, Shorelines, Atrevida, The Malaspina Review, and Portal. Some have even been published off campus—usually the result of entering a writing contest. The Vancouver Island University—then named Malaspina College—Creative Writing program was established in 1989 … Continued