Contact Us/Faculty

Glenda Leznoff

Email: leznoffg@douglas.bc.ca

BA, MFA (British Columbia)
Screenwriting, Personal Narrative, Fiction
Glenda Leznoff's work spans several genres. Her fiction has appeared in various literary reviews. She has written magazine articles for publications such as McLean's and Vancouver. In the area of script writing, she has had work produced in theater, animation and television. Glenda's children's book, Pigmalion, was published in 2001 (Tradewind Books). She is currently working with screenplay partner, Sylvie Fefer, on the development of their third feature-length film script, Impersonating Otis (with funding from Telefilm Canada). Glenda Leznoff has been teaching at Douglas College for several years.

Rick Maddocks

Email: maddocksr@douglas.bc.ca

BA (Guelph) MFA (British Columbia)
Fiction, Personal Narrative
Rick Maddocks teaches introduction to Writing Fiction and Personal Narrative. He is the author of Sputnik Diner, a fiction collection published by Knopf Canada in 2001. Its opening story, "Plane People," won a Western Magazine Award. Rick's non-fiction has appeared in anthologies such as AWOL: True Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds (Vintage, 2003). He received his MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, where he was fiction editor for Prism International. He is now editor of Event: the Douglas College Review. Rick also writes and performs music with The Beige, an atmospheric pop quintet that released its debut cd 01 in 2006.

Calvin Wharton, Chair

Email: whartonc@douglas.bc.ca

Dip Creative Writing (David Thompson) MFA (British Columbia)
Fiction, Poetry, Personal Narrative
Calvin Wharton's work has been published in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies and broadcast on CBC radio. He has published a book of poetry, Visualized Chemistry (Tsunami Editions) and co-edited the poetry anthology East of Main (Arsenal Pulp). In 1994 he published the book Rowing with Silken Laumann (Stoddart). His collection of short stories, Three Songs by Hank Williams, was published by Turnstone in spring 2002. He was the editor of Event from 1996 to 2001.

Ellen Schwartz

BSc (Wisconson) MFA (British Columbia)
Writing Children's Literature
Ellen Schwartz has published 13 books, 12 of them for children, ranging from picture books to middle-reader novels to young adult non-fiction. Her three latest titles, all 2007, are Stealing Home (Tundra), Yossi's Goal (Orca), and Abby's Birds (Tradewind). Abby's Birds was nominated for the BC Book Prizes. Ellen has taught courses in writing for children for Simon Fraser University's Continuing Studies program, and for Douglas College.

Andrea MacPherson

BA, MFA (British Columbia)
Historical Fiction
Andrea MacPherson is a poet and novelist. She has written four books: two novels, When She Was Electric (Raincoast, 2003) and Beyond the Blue (Random House, 2007) and two poetry collections, Natural Disasters (Palimpsest, 2007) and Away (Signature Editions, 2008). When She Was Electric was listed No. 6 on CBC Canada Reads: People's Choice. Andrea holds an MFA from the Creative Writing Department at the University of British Columbia, where she was also Editor of Prism International. Andrea currently acts as Reviews Editor for Event Magazine. She teaches Creative Writing and English with University College of the Fraser Valley and Douglas College.

Elizabeth Bachinsky

BA, MFA (British Columbia)
Poetry
Elizabeth Bachinsky is the author of two books of poetry, Home of Sudden Service (Nightwood Editions, 2006), and Curio: Grotesques and Satires from the Eletronic Age (Bookthug, 2005). Her work has been nominated for the Bronwen Wallace award and the governor General's award for Poetry, and has appeared in literary journals and anthologies in Canada and the US, in translation in France and China, and on screen at the NY Film Festival. She is currently at work on her third book of poems, Strange Ritual, and lives in Vancouver where she co-hosts the Robson Reading Series and is poetry editor for Event magazine.

John Vigna

BA (Calgary)
Dip. Professional Writing (Douglas College)
MFA (British Columbia)
Fiction
John Vigna attended the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and is a graduate of the MFA program at UBC. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Cabin Fever: The Best New Canadian Non-Fiction, Grain, Event, sub-Terrain, The Antigonish Review, and Exact Fare 2: Stories of Public Transportation. He is the recipient of the Dave Greber Award for Freelance Writers, winner of the sub-Terrain Lush Triumphant fiction contest and finalist for a Western Magazine Award, the Event creative non-fiction contest, and the CBC literary non-fiction contest. He teaches at Douglas College, the University of the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island University.