News Stories
Portal magazine celebrates a garden of stories at Bowen Park
April 14, 2023
The magazine launches April 21 at the Bowen Park Auditorium from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) student-run annual literary magazine, Portal, celebrates the release of its largest and 32nd issue at a new venue – the Bowen Park Auditorium. VIU’s full-colour, 108-page literary magazine is on newsstands across the country in May. It launches in Nanaimo on April 21 at the... Read more
Alum of the month: Margot Fedoruk
December 15, 2022
VIU’s Creative Writing program helped Margot Fedoruk achieve her lifelong dream of publishing a book. Fedoruk, who graduated in 2021, says much of the material in her memoir, Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives: An Island Memoir, was workshopped in various VIU classes. The book follows her adventures of raising a family on Gabriola Island with her husband, who is an urchin diver. Aside from her... Read more
Alum of the Month: Délani Valin
November 16, 2022
Délani Valin’s passion for words started at just 10 years old when she would find interesting words in the thesaurus and write poems about them or insert them into poems. Now, the VIU Creative Writing grad has released her first book of poetry, Shapeshifters. This latest development should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Valin, who won The Malahat Review's Long Poem prize while still a... Read more
Renowned BC Poet Lorna Crozier Comes to VIU for Gustafson Lecture and Reading
October 23, 2018
VIU’s Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet for 2018 is Lorna Crozier, one of Canada’s literary giants. She will participate in three events, including a free reading and a lecture that are both open to the public on November 7 and 8. Sometimes it can be a risk to speak your mind, but Lorna Crozier learned early that writing poetry that matters means taking that risk again and again. The... Read more
Vancouver Island’s Ghost Stories Investigated
October 16, 2018
VIU Creative Writing student Shanon Sinn is fascinated by ghost stories –so much so that he wrote a book exploring some of the Island’s legendary supernatural tales. In The Haunting of Vancouver Island, Sinn investigates more than two dozen different ghost stories and supernatural events, including stories about VIU’s Malaspina Theatre ghost. From a headless ghost, to a lady who walks on water,... Read more
5 Questions with Kathy Page
September 7, 2018
Award-winning author Kathy Page, whose work has been nominated twice for the Scotiabank Giller Prize amongst other accolades, enjoys mentoring emerging writers as a Professor with the Creative Writing and Journalism department at VIU. As Chair of her department, she’s organized several events on campus that highlight the literary accomplishments of both her colleagues and students. On September 4... Read more