Success Stories

Recent news from our graduates, participants, and mentors include:

• Mentor Mark Winston, is the current Writer in Residence at Simon Fraser University.
• Director and VMI mentor Elee Kraljii Gardiner’s interview with poets Joyelle McSweeney and Ken White appeared in Carousel Issue 44.
• Director and VMI mentor Rachel Rose’s new book of short stories,The Octopus Has Three Hearts, is hotly anticipated by 49th Shelf! Rachel also has a poem featured in Vancouver Poetry Phone. Feel free to call the number and listen in at: 1-833-POEMS-4-U (763-6748)  You can also listen online on the homepage here.
• Mentor Susan Olding’s essay, “Past Lives” appears in the latest issue of the Humber Literary Review. A lyric essay appears in Sweet Literary. Her new collection of essays, Big Reader, is forthcoming from Freehand in May 2021.
• Mentor Evelyn Lau speaks with Rob Taylor about her latest poetry book, Pineapple Express.
• Mentor Betsy Warland and Shaena Lambert are leading a Dark and Stormy writing retreat next fall at Hollyhock on Cortes Island.
• VMI Fellow, Pervin Saket’s essay on (not) writing during the pandemic has just been published by Singapore Unbound. Pervin has recently been named poetry editor of Bombay Literary Magazine.
• Adrienne Drobnies (VMI 2007) published her first book of poetry Salt and Ashes in 2019 with Signature Editions.  Her long poem poem “Randonnées” won the Gwendolyn MacEwen award for emerging poet in 2017 and was shortlisted for the CBC literary prize.
• Carol Cram (VMI 2014) has been busy publishing! The Towers of Tuscany (Lake Union Publishing, 2014) designated Editors’ Choice by the Historical Novel Society in the UK, and won the Grand Prize Chaucer Award for best historical novel pre-1750 (Chanticleer Awards). The Towers of Tuscany was the novel completed during the VMI program with Cathleen With as mentor. It has been translated into both German and Czech and is available as an audio book. A Woman of Note (Lake Union Publishing, 2015) designated Editors’ Choice by the Historical Novel Society in the UK and won a First in Category Goethe Award for best historical novel post-1750 (Chanticleer Awards). A Woman of Note is also available as an audio book. The Muse of Fire (Kindle Press & New Arcadia Publishing, 2018) won a Bronze “IPPY” award for Best Historical Novel from the Independent Publishers Awards and a First in Category Goethe Award for Best Historical Novel post-1750. Pastel & Pen: Travels in Europe (New Arcadia Publishing, 2018) with artist Gregg Simpson — a non-collaborative collaboration of art and writing. All three of Carol’s published novels relate to stories about women in the arts–painting in The Towers of Tuscany, composing in A Woman of Note, and the theater in The Muse of Fire. Carol is currently completing The Merchant of Siena, a continuation of The Towers of Tuscany. Carol launched her own publishing company, New Arcadia Publishing, in 2014, initially publishing The Towers of Tuscany until it was acquired by Lake Union Publishing in the US. Carol was thrilled to publish Nine Birds Singing by Edythe Anstey Hanen in 2018. The novel is currently a finalist for the Whistler Independent Book Awards. A current project is the development and launch of Art In Fiction (www.artinfiction.com), a directory website that lists close to 1000 novels (so far) inspired by the arts in ten categories. www.carolcram.com
• Carole Harmon’s memoir, Wolverine, an Untold Tale of Banff, Family and Photography was workshopped in VMI 2017 with Betsy Warland as mentor. A revised version, also mentored by Betsy, is this fall being considered by NeWest Press for the second time. Carole’s long poem Yarrow’s Offering was on the shortlist for the 2018 Gwendolyn McEwan Poetry Prize. Carole is hoping to find a publisher for this project as a chapbook or audio chapbook. Metamorphosis of My Mother, an excerpt from Beasts & Flowers, the poetry and lyric prose manuscript she is currently working on, was long listed for the 2019 Humber Literary Review and CNFC Creative Non-fiction Competition.
• Jan Redford (VMI 2009) published her memoir, End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage & Motherhood with Random House in Canada and Counterpoint Press in U.S. in spring of 2018.
• Jane Mortifee (VMI 2015) published her first novel, Out Of The Fire, available on amazon, at Banyen Books in Vancouver or on the website www.janemortifee.com
• Jude Neale was a graduate of VMI with Rachel Rose in 2014. She has published 7 books. Her most recent book (Ekstasis Editions 2019) was A Blooming. She wrote and performed the narrative for the St Roch Suite with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra in the spring.
• Judy McFarlane (VMI 2012) is the author of Writing with Grace, A Journey Beyond Down Syndrome, published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2014. Her book was a 2015 IBBY Outstanding Book for Young people with Disabilities and a finalist for the 2015 Edna Staebler Award for Non Fiction. A book length excerpt was published in Reader’s Digest. Judy is currently working on a play and on a novel set in the near future.
• Leslie Hill (VMI 2010) published a short essay, ‘Scum’ in Blank Spaces, had it reprinted in ‘Just Words’ and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
• Becky Livingston, 2015 VMI alumna, has published her memoir, The Suitcase and the Jar: Travels with a Daughter’s Ashes.
• Barbara Black, 2017 VMI alumna, has won The Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition.
• VMI alumna, Jan Redford, has published her memoir, End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood, with Penguin Random House.
• Jonina Kirton from VMI 2012 has been named a finalist for the BC Book Prizes, for her second book of poems, An Honest Woman.
• VMI 2015 writer Leanne Dunic was announced winner of The Alice Munro Short Story Prize.
• VMI 2013 Carol Cram finished her debut novel The Towers of Tuscany that was subsequently published with New Arcadia Publishing and is now available on Amazon Kindle for download. The print version was bought and re-issued in December 2014 by the U.S. press Lake Union Publishing.
• Tina Biello developed and finished her book of poetry, A Housecoat Remains, in VMI 2013 that will be published by Guernica Editions, Fall 2015.
• VMI 2013 writer Jude Neale finished A Quiet Coming of Light (Leaf Press) that has been shortlisted for 2015 The Pat Lowther Award.
• Jonina Kirton’s collection of poems, page as bone – ink as blood, developed in VMI 2012, was published by Talonbooks in Spring 2015.
• Marilyn Belak from VMI 2012 won 2nd place for her poem september–indian summer in Pandora’s Collective’s 2015 poetry contest.
• VMI 2012 writer Kathy Para finished her debut novel, Lucky that subsequently won Mother Tongue Publishing’s second Great BC Novel Contest and was then nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Award.
• Judy McFarlane’s book Writing with Grace, A Journey Beyond Down Syndrome, was finished during VMI 2012 was published by Douglas & McIntyre in Spring 2014.
• VMI 2012 writer Melia McClure finished her novel, The Delphi Room which was subsequently published by ChiZine Publications in September 2013.
• Beth Kope’s collection of poems, Average Height of Flight: A Companion Piece, was developed in VMI 2011 was published by Caitlin Press in Spring 2015.
• VMI 2011 writer Lisa Voisin’s The Watcher, a young adult paranormal romance, was published in March 2013 by Inkspell Publishing.
• VMI 2011 writer Ann Graham Walker developed her chapbook of poems, The Puzzle at the End of Love that was published by Leaf Press in 2012.
• Leslie Hill’s memoir, Dressed for Dancing – A Sojourn in the Findhorn Foundation, was developed during VMI 2011 and published by Incite Press in December 2012.