Left to right: Umar Turaki, contest organizer; Steven Lattey, 2nd place; Wendell Zylstra, 3rd place; J.J. Hills, 1st place; Nancy Holmes, contest judge

The finalists of the 27th annual Okanagan Short Story Contest were announced at a public event by creative writing emeritus professor, Nancy Holmes, who also initiated the contest in 1997. The event was held on March 19th at the Alternator for Contemporary Art with each of the writers reading a part of their story.

After reading all of the shortlisted stories, Holmes notes that this was such a difficult process in choosing the winners.

“Both the high school and adult categories contained absolute gems of short fiction,” she says. “I felt myself in a nearly impossible position—in the adult category, the top five stories in my opinion were all so good I could hardly bring myself to rank them.”

J.J. Hills took the first prize with his story, Clinical Care, about an elderly woman taking her step-granddaughter to a clinic was simply dazzling in characterization and dialogue.

“From the first page I fully believed in the reality of these two people and a few pages later in the staff person at the clinic. These three women struggle to do their very best in a situation sabotaged by a horrible past and troubling human failings.  The story concerns just an hour or two in the lives of these characters but exposes in painful detail how nearly every decision they (and by sympathetic relatability – we) make. The story also skillfully unrolls the mystery of the visit to the clinic and keeps the story heavy with conflict and tension.”

Steven Lattey placed second with the story He Died Laughing.

“This story is a depiction of the banality of human evil, to quote Hannah Arendt.  The story verges on allegory and gestures towards the politically infused magic realist school of writing while it unpeels the layers of horror of how ordinary people become perpetrators of crimes against humanity.”

Third place went to Wendell Zylstra for Garbage, a story that takes place in a possible near future that points towards a crumbling society and a frightening future of machine-human fusion.

“This story is told from the point of view of a nearly feral boy who lives on or near a giant garbage dump, a setting that takes on superb and unrelenting symbolic presence in the story.  Just as the young protagonist, a violent, angry, and vulnerable young man, lives on the edge of a dumping ground, the reader gets a dark feeling that the culture itself—our culture—is on the edge of apocalypse and impending post-humanism. This story is chilling and mysterious.”

Holmes also acknowledged two other stories in the adulty category that she says she could barely let go of.

“Their themes matched the winning stories for resonance and significance, and their writing was superb,” she adds. Honorable mentions went to Philip Seagram (Nelson) for The Way You Say It, and Miracle Adebayo (Kelowna) for Treasures from Daycare

The young writers in the high school category tackled themes perennial to young people— such as journeys into frighteningly unknown futures- but tinged, I suspect by the complicated times in which we live, explains Holmes.

“So many of these stories dealt with fear of the loss of friends and loved ones, awareness of a life saturated with loneliness and a kind of hopeless or destructive longing, as well as conveying a very dark view of the state of the natural world,” she adds. “The winner of this category was a stand-out however. From the moment I read it, I knew it was a winner.”

Briar Fagan from Selkirk Secondary School took the top prize for their story, Angels Don’t Smoke Earwigs.

Holmes says that many things make this story outstanding- the writing first of all.  Imagery that never lets up on delivering a sense of decay, disintegration- each phrase contributes to the feeling of despair and hopelessness.

“This was an astonishing story, sophisticated, beautifully written about a young man being sent off to some mysterious war— the story presents a feeling of a not-too distant future or some other country in the current geopolitical now. The story takes place over a few short hours as the young man and his lover take their leave from each other.”

The annual contest, organized by the Creative Writing program in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS), is a writing competition open to fiction writers in British Columbia’s Southern Interior. Writers submit their stories, which are then read, anonymously, by faculty, and the shortlisted stories are sent to a guest judge to choose the winners in the adult and high school categories.

The first-place writer received $1,000; second-place winner received $400 and third-place received $200. The top high school student received a $200 prize. Co-sponsors of the contest are FCCS and the Central Okanagan Foundation.

View the full shortlist for this year’s contest.

The annual UBC Giving Day is Thursday, April 3 – a special 24-hour celebration of giving that brings students, alumni, faculty, staff and donors together to make our voices heard. Last year, thousands of donors helped open doors, boost potential and create new opportunities for our community.

In FCCS, we are supporting the Indigenous Art Intensive (IAI). The IAI is like a brush dipped in both tradition and new vision, painting a shared canvas where contemporary Indigenous creativity can flourish. This month-long residency gathers students, artists, curators, writers and scholars to engage in contemporary ideas and discourse—a place for new ideas rooted in Indigenous art-making.

Your support this UBC Giving Day would mean the world to us, it goes beyond funding a program—it directly supports the Indigenous artists who bring this vision to life. Supporting the Indigenous Art Intensive ensures these artists can continue creating, sharing, and teaching in meaningful ways.

This program directly supports artists, with funds going directly towards supporting our Indigenous artists in residence. Art requires engagement and connection; and supporting artists directly is the best way support creativity in our places.

Please join us on April 3 to keep this creative circle strong, where Indigenous voices paint brighter horizons and our shared community grows even stronger.

GIVE TO THE INDIGENOUS ART INTENSIVE

Denise Kenney leading the students in exercises

To address the need to focus on developing communication skills for interacting with clients, Melanie Willson, Associate Director of the School of Nursing at UBC Okanagan, reached out to theatre professors Denise Kenney and Tracy Ross to work with first year nursing students in a class with lecturer, Maggie Weninger.

“This was originally inspired by a third-year student who took Tracy’s improv class as an elective,” says Willson. “I was excited by the links that she was making between the skills from improv and her communication with clients in clinical practice.”

Performance practice shines a light on human interaction and we are trained in the art of relational aesthetics, in all of its manifestations, explains Denise Kenney.

“This is what makes this collaboration such a good fit. It was also interesting that when faced with a class with ‘theatre people’ the students felt the same kind of nervousness that their patients might have entering an unfamiliar health care context,” she says.

Sometimes positioning something as ‘make believe’, such as drama or theatre, frees students up to take more risks and play/practice with less inhibitions.

Weninger says they actually use a lot of art and performance in nursing. “We call this ‘the art of nursing’ as they know it to be their relational practice.”

For the performance pieces in nursing, they use a lot of simulation, anywhere from low fidelity simulators (ie. simulated body parts) to high fidelity simulators, such as mannequins that can blink, breathe, have body sounds, etc., to actors who come in to play different roles, like actors who play patients with mental health illnesses.

“This is incredibly important for our students to practice in a safe space and try out different skills without being concerned that they will hurt someone or say the wrong thing,” Weninger adds.

Kenney and Ross applied performer training activities and improvisations to address interpersonal dynamics as they pertain to Non-Violent Communication and de-escalation techniques in a hands-on way that is safe, prior to them practicing it in ‘real life’ situations.

The Non-Violent Communication process involves four steps: observation; identify the feelings surrounding the situation; identify the needs that underly the feelings; and make or offer a request for the need.

“We collaborated with Nursing Professors Maggie Weninger and Melanie Willson to design a series of activities that helped students explore and practice, in an embodied, dialogical and interactive way, the dynamics of nurse/patient encounters,” Kenney notes.

These activities are grounded in performance training designed to explore mindfulness, observation, emotional and sensory literacy, subtext, improvisation, and consent.

Weninger notes that it was nice for students to get up and use their bodies vs sitting in the classroom. “Tracy, Denise, and I all noticed that they had the nervous giggles at first, but then really settled into it quickly. Most were very engaged and took it seriously, and a few of them asked me at the end of class if we were going to be doing this again!”

Kenney adds, “I think all involved learned something new from the collaboration.”

Nursing students Sara McCreght & Cheyanna Wolff exploring how to act out (and detect) subtext for a script.

Jenny Kwan, Devon Jennings & Davina Wilson with Tracy Ross and Denise Kenney (centre) talking about how body language can have an effect on our interactions

Visual Arts Lecturer, David James Doody invited author, curator and public art consultant Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz to speak in his An Introduction to Art course in the fall of 2024. Having the opportunity to have a conversation directly with the author is unique for students. It adds credibility to the ideas expressed on the page, explains Doody.

“Meeting the author first hand not only allows students to uncover a deeper context directly from the authors personal experiences it also help humanize heroic achievements and make the seemingly impossible more tangible more reachable and more relatable,” he adds.

Doody met Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz in Manhattan in February of 2020. “Joyce was a foundational player in the wide spread growth of public art in cities across the united states. Joyce was writing a new book “Private Eye in Public Art”.  We discussed the invaluable impact of art in public spaces and  I shared exciting success of ground breaking new public art programming at UBCO with our summer mural course. Since that initial conversation Joyce and I kept up our correspondence,” he says.

In fall of 2024 Joyce sent Doody an advanced copy final draft of her book to read and incorporate into the public art courses  he was teaching This  beautiful book offers unique insight to the development of public art in America since the 1950’s the key players and the landmark achievements, and offers great guidance and words of encouragement for developing art in all communities.

In this candid conversation, Schwartz & Doody discuss the history and impact of public art in America. As champion for creating a national identity through public, Schwartz shares her unique insight and her foundational role in public art in America. In this light hearted conversation Schwartz & Doody discuss Her new book The Private Eye in Public Art  and some of Schwartz’s most impactful projects such as the Irish Hunger Memorial by Brian Tolle, in Battery Park NYC and Elypitic by Maya Lin, in  Grand Rapids Michigan.

This video was recorded and presented to students as part of VISA 137 An Introduction to Art, UBC Okanagan 2024.

McKenna King

McKenna King started her bachelor of arts degree in 2020, and quickly decided to do a double major in French and English. “Since I graduated high school with a Double Dogwood diploma from French immersion, I wanted to keep up both languages at the same level,” she says.

In doing a double major, King says that she found it interesting to see how her French and English studies connected. “I love literary theory, especially feminist and gender theory, and I was able to apply those ideas to my French courses.”

She notes that it was really interesting to see how historical and cultural ideas influenced literature in both languages, and being able to analyze texts from multiple perspectives made her writing and critical thinking so much stronger.

“Sometimes I would even switch between languages without realizing it while writing!” she jokes.

Majoring in French meant jumping straight into third-year classes because of her proficiency. “While I still had to take some grammar courses, my favorite part was definitely the literature classes.”

King says that one of her favourite French courses was a 17th-century fairy tale course with Dr. Marianne Legault, where students read both familiar and lesser-known fairy tales in their original form.

“It was amazing to see how these stories evolved over time and to dive into discussions about how fairy tales, often dismissed because they were considered a ‘female space,’ actually hold huge literary value,” she adds.

In the second year of her studies, she was encouraged to apply for the English Honors program. King took an English class on critical theory with Dr. Melissa Jacques, and says she fell completely in love with critical theory.

“That class changed everything for me, and I asked Dr. Jacques to be my thesis supervisor, which ended up being a mix of memoir and critical analysis, which was a bit different from the usual English Honors format,” she explains.

For the thesis, she wrote about her great-grandfather’s World War II journal and her dad’s sketchbook, analyzing how they act as physical representations of relationships in her family, mapping how they connected different family members over time. The thesis included excerpts from the journal, photocopies of the original documents, and even letters from the war.

King says that one of the best things about UBCO is its small, tight-knit community. “For me, this meant I got to form great relationships with both my professors and classmates. Having that kind of support made a huge difference in my academic experience.”

Originally, King wanted to be a high school teacher like her mom, but her time at UBCO changed her mind. Now, she wants to go to grad school and eventually teach at the post-secondary level.

“I hope to get into an interdisciplinary English MA program that lets me think and write in the creative, analytical way I enjoy. I also want to continue researching literature and theory while keeping French as part of my academic work.”

When asked if she could give her first-year self any advice, she says it would be to trust herself more. “I was super shy coming out of high school and didn’t speak up in class much, even when I had something to say.”

She says that it wasn’t until her second year that she started putting her hand up in class and realizing that her ideas were actually worth sharing. Discussion is a huge part of learning, and even if you don’t have the perfect answer, what you say can spark new ideas and keep the conversation going.

“Nobody is expecting you to be an expert—everyone is here to learn. I wish I had been more comfortable with not knowing everything right away because that’s where real learning happens.”

University is about challenging yourself, growing, and stepping out of your comfort zone.

“Looking back, I’m really grateful for the experiences and relationships I built at UBCO, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Asha Young

Asha Young, originally from the lower mainland moved to the Okanagan in 2010 to start her Bachelor of Arts degree at UBCO. After taking a second year Cultural Studies focused on film, she met with the program coordinator and decided to major in Cultural Studies.

“At the time, I wasn’t sure what Cultural Studies even was—I assumed it was related to Indigenous Studies, but I soon discovered it offered something entirely different,” Young admits. “It combined history, media, and power dynamics, which resonated deeply with me. I loved it.”

Young noted that coming out of high school, she didn’t have a strong understanding of global perspectives or power structures, but the four years of education during her undergraduate degree opened her eyes. After graduating from UBCO, Young went on to pursue law school at UBC Vancouver.

Young always had her sights set on going to law school and says it was reassuring to realize that any Bachelor of Arts major could lead to law school.

“So why not choose something I genuinely enjoyed? I can say now that being in Cultural Studies helped shape the way I view the world and taught me to be a critical thinker—skills that have stayed with me through law school and into my career.”

For students considering law school, Young says that it’s worth knowing that a degree in Cultural Studies—or any humanities or social sciences program—can be just as valuable as more traditional paths. These programs teach critical thinking, creativity, and perspective—skills that transcend any single career.

Because of her undergraduate experience, she says that she is able to bring a perspective that many of her colleagues, who often come from business backgrounds, may not have. Her critical thinking skills and media literacy help her navigate corporate law while staying engaged with broader social issues.

She remembers that in one law school course on jurisprudence—the study of what law is—she wrote a paper analyzing the movie Black Panther. “I explored how the film perpetuates hegemonic ideas of Western law, even in fictional universes. It was a unique and rewarding experience, where I used my skills in media analysis with legal theory.”

Young also participates in pro bono initiatives, fundraising, and community campaigns, such as chairing a “Law Needs Feminism” photo campaign. “In this project, I photographed students and faculty, overlaying their handwritten thoughts on why law needs feminism onto their portraits. It was a meaningful blend of art, advocacy, and law.”

Young says that throughout her undergraduate degree, the program allowed her to explore her artistic interests while engaging in critical theories.

“I had always been interested in art, but I never imagined it as a career path. The program gave me opportunities to study television, movies, and video games while also tackling projects that blended creativity with academic inquiry.”

For one class, she created a zine about feminism in mainstream media, reimagining Disney movies by flipping traditional narratives on their heads. For example, she turned Belle into the Beast and swapped Ariel’s role with Prince Eric’s. The project involved photography, film development, and hand-designed layouts.

“It was a fun project that let me create something tangible while deeply engaging with class concepts, and I was very proud of the work,” she notes. “For me, projects like my Disney zine was not just an assignment—I created a tangible, lasting work that encapsulated who I was as a student and remains a highlight for me.”

Looking back, Young says her undergraduate experience in Cultural Studies helped to shape her worldview. “Whether it’s critically analyzing media, engaging with legal systems, or collaborating with diverse communities, the program taught me to think deeply and creatively.”

The Herbal Records of Agnes Hathaway, journal created by 4th year English Honour student, Emma Laing

Emma Laing is a fourth-year English honours student, under the supervision of Dr. Michael Treschow, she is researching the fourteenth-century poem Pearl. In this project, she will examine the relationship between human attachment to earthly experiences and the search for divine wisdom, particularly as reflected through the personified figures of Fortune and Wisdom, and will also be referencing Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess, and Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love.

“Throughout my studies, I have developed a deep passion for particular areas of literature, and the English honours program has provided both an opportunity and a challenge to explore those areas further.”

In a class with Dr. Jennifer Gustar, students were assigned a research essay, but Emma put in a proposal to undergo a more creative approach. In Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, the character of Agnes fictitiously represents Anne Shakespeare (née Hathaway), Emma says she wanted to further uncover her expansive interiority. “Because of this, I felt the project form needed to be personal, which led me to create a journal as if it were written by Agnes.”

The journal displays her extensive knowledge of herbal medicine and her talent for writing. Each of the herbs or plants included focus on a particular aspect of Agnes’ life and emotions, including protection, love, motherhood, and grief. Alongside the plants, Emma included their scientific names as found in early modern herbals like those by John Gerard and Nicholas Culpeper, as well as journal entries and paintings as if created by Agnes herself, and literary insight into the novel. Everything in the journal was intended to be written by Agnes, and Emma framed her literary analysis into envelopes or kept it separate to make the journal feel more authentic.

Reflecting on this project, Emma says: Many people assume that studying English is solely about essay writing. However, critical research, analysis, and reflection can take many forms. While traditional essays are often the most effective way to express your thoughts and opinions, creative projects like this one can better support certain directions and ideas. Creative research projects are becoming more common in English courses, and for me, working on creative projects allows me to combine my interests – critical analysis, creative writing, art, and in this case, plant medicine – into something I am truly passionate about.

Below are photographs of some of the pages of the journal Emma created for this class.

Painting of a milk thistle plant, traditionally used to aid and heal mothers.

Painting of a marigold, traditionally healing and used to honour the dead.

Painting of meadowsweet blooms. Traditionally represents purity, love, and joy.

Agnes writing about the poppies, envelope with literary analysis.

Celebrating the Return: Gobo lights and sound installation celebrates the return of the salmon to the Okanagan, and was created by Tara Dunn under the supervision of Dr. Aleksandra Dulic

Light Up Kelowna is initiative that started in 2020 with Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) professors Dr. Miles Thorogood and Dr. Aleksandra Dulic, working in collaboration with Kirsteen McCulloch, Executive Director of the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan (ARTSCO).

The initial Light up Kelowna project was an annual event of digital installations that were projected onto the outside of the Rotary Centre for the Arts that showcase images and sounds created by FCCS faculty and students. Projections were shown on the exterior of the Rotary Centre for the Arts from November to April, 2020 to 2023.

In May of 2023, Drs. Thorogood and Dulic attended ISEA 2023, the 28th International Symposium on Electronic Art in Paris, presenting the Light Up Kelowna project, gaining international recognition for the open-source network infrastructure for their public art project. The presentation, Light Up Kelowna: Coordination and Development of Networked Community-based Media Art Urban Screen Infrastructure, they outline the structure for coordinating engaged parties in developing scalable urban screen infrastructure and considerations necessary for installing rear projection urban screens in existing city spaces, and talked about their approach for developing an urban screen, showcasing multiple exhibitions.

In December 2024, two significant new exhibition venues were created —Light Up Kelowna ArtWalk and Urban Screen at the Kelowna Community Theatre (KCT).

The Artwalk runs along the pedestrian thoroughfare linking the Rotary Centre for the Arts (RCA) and the Kelowna Community Theatre (KCT), and the Urban Screens are on the outside of the KCT. Both create vibrant installations that illuminate the Cultural District, showcasing local artists and engaging the community in a celebration of creativity and connection.

The first exhibitions for the new Light Up Kelowna consist of three elements viewed together: the gobo lights, the audio installation, and the three-channel video, Celebrating the Return, Gobo lights and sound installation along the Artwalk, and Okanagan Waterways, projections at the KCT. The light, sound and video installations will change seasonally, the imagery created for December’s exhibitions, highlight the cultural and ecological significance of restoring Sockeye Salmon and the cultural imperative of restoring Okanagan habitats, riparian systems, and biodiversity. The imagery created for Gobo Lights and Sound Walk celebrates the return of the salmon to the Okanagan. In response to the success of the salmon return to the Okanagan, École Okanagan Mission Secondary student Tara Dunn, under the supervision of Aleksandra Dulic, created the salmon imagery and symmetrical arrangement to mark this incredible initiative. Miles Thorogood and his undergraduate research assistant, Yahvardhan Joshi, created a sound installation that immerses the salmon in a flowing river of sounds. These exhibitions were on display from December 2024 to the end of February, 2025.

Through the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCT), Dr. Aleksandra Dulic created the concept and feel for the digital projections and worked to determine the design for the three-channel projections on the KCT, providing guidance to the technical team that included Dr. Thorogood and Dr. Yujie Gao, creating an infrastructure that can be used for this space going forward.

Dr. Miles Thorogood and his team at the Sonic Production, Intelligence, Research, and Applications Lab (SPIRAL) along with Dr. Dulic, designed the cutting-edge wireless sound and light system that brings the Artwalk to life. Spanning the 120-meter walkway, this infrastructure includes five innovative sound and light nodes. Each node operates independently, offering customizable soundscapes and dynamic lighting effects. This versatility enables a range of creative applications, from multi-channel media installations to live performances with musicians and performers, positioning the Artwalk as a living, breathing work of art.

The installation is more than just a technical achievement, it’s a testament to SPIRAL’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of media art and community engagement. Over the next five years, this infrastructure will serve as a platform for local, national, and international sound and media artists, fostering a vibrant dialogue between art, technology, and community.

Light Up Kelowna is a partnership with the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan (ARTSCO), the support of the City of Kelowna with financial support from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, the United Way Recovery Fund, the BC Arts Council and Canada Healthy Communities.

This project is produced by ARTSCO Executive Director Kirsteen McCulloch, and is made possible with support from FCCS Technical Director Philip Wyness, FCCS Studio Technician Connor McKinnon, FCCS Media Technician Sam Neal, MFA alumnus Ryan Broadbent, MA student Christopher Anderson, PhD alumna Dr. Yujie Gao, along with guidance from Dr. Miles Thorogood, Dr. Aleks Dulic.

Thanks to the work of Dr. Dulic and Dr. Thorogood, the Artwalk is not just a walkway—it’s a stage for innovation, a canvas for creativity, and a space where art and technology unite to inspire.

The tech team, Philip Wyness (left), Rylan Broadbent (centre), and Sam Neal (right) setting up the Gobo lights along the Artwalk

Testing the Gobo lights before the installation

Artist Tara Dunn (right) with fellow students from the ARTSCO Youth Council interacting with the light projection of spawning salmon along the Artwalk, located along the pedestrian thoroughfare linking the Rotary Centre for the Arts and the Kelowna Community Theatre.

Dr. Yujie Gao setting up the projection mapping for Light Up Kelowna @KCT

Dr. Yujie Gao setting up the projection mapping for Light Up Kelowna @KCT

This projection on the side of the KCT celebrates the diverse ecosystems of Okanagan Waterways. This immersive video installation, created by Drs. Aleksandra Dulic and Miles Thorogood

Kelly Shepherd, photo by Randall Edwards Photography

Kelly Shepherd has been a construction worker in northern Alberta and a kindergarten teacher in South Korea. Dog and Moon, forthcoming in spring 2025 from Oskana Poetry & Poetics (University of Regina Press) is Kelly’s third poetry collection. He is part of The Land and Labour Poetry Collective, an editorial group currently working on the book I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis (forthcoming from Fernwood Publishing). Kelly’s second poetry collection, Insomnia Bird (Thistledown Press, 2018) won the 2019 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. He has written eight chapbooks (most recently Sleep Is a Deep Pool with The Alfred Gustav Press, 2023), and he is a poetry editor for the environmental philosophy journal The Trumpeter. He has a Creative Writing MFA from UBC Okanagan (with a thesis on the intersections of ecopoetry and work poetry—supervised by Nancy Holmes), and an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Alberta (with a thesis on sacred geography). Originally from Smithers, BC, Kelly lives on Treaty 6 territory, in Edmonton, where he teaches in the English and Communications Department at NAIT (the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology).

We met with Kelly to discuss his book and to get some insight on his writing process.

Tell us about your new book, Dog and Moon.

​Dog and Moon is not really “about” any one thing, because with this book I’m trying to resist closure, and I’m trying to contain multitudes. But some main themes, or threads, include an embodied relationship with the natural world, my fascination with wildlife, and an ongoing engagement with other poets and writers. As the University of Regina website describes it, these poems are “a series of juxtapositions: nature writing placed in conversation with the language of poetry workshops, mythology and childhood memories, and sensorial encounters with the natural world colliding with images of home and belonging.” I’m trying to dig into the mythical and symbolic nature of things. The title Dog and Moon comes from a line in one of the poems, and dogs and the moon also appear frequently throughout the book.

What was your process in researching and writing the book and working with an editor and publisher?

On the one hand, it’s fair to say that I worked on this book for over twenty years! Because many of the lines and images I use in these poems come from notebooks, which I’ve been writing in for a long time. But on the other hand, there was also a lot of spontaneity and even improvisation involved in the process.

My experience working with the editor (Randy Lundy) and the University of Regina Press has been fantastic. This is my third book (the first two were published by Thistledown Press) and I’ve enjoyed the entire process immensely each time, and with each different editor. Putting poems in order, and deciding which poems go and which should stay in a manuscript, all of this is a lot of work, but it’s also fun. It’s been a real honour to discuss my work with some truly talented editors, book designers, and publishers. Honestly, I feel very lucky.

Tell us about your time at UBCO as a student in the MFA program.

I enjoyed the cross-pollination that happened at UBCO. Both socially and creatively, it seemed like there was always this mix of undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors doing things together. I went there for the Creative Writing MFA, and Nancy Holmes was my supervisor. As Nancy’s research assistant, I had the opportunity to work on some really interesting things, including the Woodshed Readings poetry series at Woodhaven, and the “Dig Your Neighbourhood” community art project. It was also amazing to study poetry with the legendary Sharon Thesen!

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer, or how did you decide that doing an MFA was right for you?

I did always want to be a writer, but of course I had no idea what that would look like. And technically I’m still not a writer now, if by “writer” you mean someone who makes a living from their writing. And if that (money) was my goal, I certainly wouldn’t be writing poetry! I do teach writing these days, albeit the non-creative kind.

And I didn’t know much about MFAs, to be honest, before I started doing mine at UBC Okanagan. But I wanted to pursue writing in a more focused environment, and that degree was a great fit. Part of the decision-making process for me was seeking out a supervisor with similar interests and aesthetics.

If you could start university again, would you do anything differently?

I would wait longer before starting university! And I would try to travel first, try to see more of the world, so I could make better-informed decisions. As opposed to getting into debt with student loans before I even knew what I wanted to do, straight out of high school, which is unfortunately what I did. I’m happy with the degrees I did get, of course (including the MFA from UBCO!) but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the long and winding road that I took to get them.

Barbara Emefa Kpedekpo

Barbara Emefa Kpedekpo completed her masters degree in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program in the Digital Arts and Humanities theme in the fall of 2024, supervised by Dr. Suzanne Gott, along with committee members, Dr. Neha Gupta and Dr. Hussein Keshani. Her thesis titled, Heritage Through Pixels: Digitization of Ghana’s Cultural Heritage with the Aim of Increasing Engagement and Participation Amongst the Youth, combines her passion for cultural heritage transmission, preservation and engagement.

‘My thesis, is where Ghanaian culture meets the digital age. It’s all about using digital tools to preserve and share our cultural heritage among the younger generation. In simpler terms, it’s about making sure our traditions don’t get left behind in the rush to tap, swipe and scroll on our screens.’

We asked Barbara to discuss her experience at UBCO as a master’s student and to give us more information about her thesis project.

Why did you choose to apply to the IGS master’s program in the DAHU theme?

I chose the IGS master’s program in the DAHU theme to turn a personal challenge into a purposeful mission. Growing up, my limited fluency in Ewe left me feeling disconnected from my heritage. But being immersed in a multicultural or ethnic environment like Ghana taught me something powerful: culture is more than language —it’s identity, memory, skills, and legacy. This realization fueled my curiosity about how I could bridge some of the cultural gaps in Ghana. My thesis Heritage Through Pixels, focuses on engaging Ghanaian youth with their heritage through accessible and inclusive digital tools, especially in resource-constrained contexts such as Ghana. The DAHU theme offered the perfect blend of creativity, technology, and cultural exploration, giving me the tools to reimagine tradition in the digital age. For me this research was not only a way to craft sustainable solutions that preserve our past but also inspire a culturally rich future.

Tell us about the road to earning your UBC degree.

The road to earning my degree has been a mix of adventure, self-discovery, and, let’s be honest, a fair share of late night-calls – thanks to geographical divides – and moments of self-doubt. Coming from Ghana, I arrived with a suitcase full of dreams, a passion for cultural heritage, and just enough knowledge about Canadian winters to pack a warm jacket. The feeling of being an “outsider” among my Ewe ethnic community led me to question what it really means to belong. UBCO seemed like the perfect place to figure it out—an international hub where everyone’s a little lost but pretending not to be. It provided a welcoming space that embraced my cultural differences and allowed me to share my cultural insecurities openly. UBCO wasn’t just about academics to me—it was about figuring out life. I learned that “networking” sometimes just means finding someone who did not understand the article that was shared in class or sharing your experience as a teaching assistant. I discovered that being far from home teaches you not just independence but also how to survive and embrace opportunities and challenges that come your way. One of my greatest opportunities was having a supportive community that truly had my best interests at heart (my roommate—Donna, supervisor­—Dr. Suzanne Gott, and faith community—Trinity Church Kelowna). In all, it has been an interesting and transformative journey!

My sincerest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr. Suzanne Gott, who was always ready to listen, share sharp insights, and nudge me when I needed it. Her genuine investment in helping me carve my career path was so evident in every meeting. She has been one of my greatest motivations for wanting to pursue a career in this field. My class with Dr. Neha Gupta, a small but mighty group of three students, remains unforgettable for its inspiration and teamwork. Professors I TAed for at FCCS championed my research like it was their own, especially Dr. Nathalie Hager who always shared invaluable insights, encouraged and cheered me on. Everywhere I turned on campus, I found a community of professors, from different faculties and departments (Dr. Christine Schreyer, Dr. Hussein Keshani, Dr. Catherine Higgs) who truly had my back. It wasn’t just support; it was a powerhouse of encouragement and belief in my potential.

Tell us about your thesis, why did you choose this subject?

I always felt like I was caught between two worlds in my youth—an Ewe who couldn’t speak Ewe fluently. Imagine trying to explain to your relatives why you sound more like Google Translate than a proud member of your community. My shaky Ewe language always made me feel like an outsider in my own community. I realized I wasn’t alone—many others felt the same disconnect. That’s when the idea hit me: What if technology could be used as a bridge? What if we could take our rich oral traditions—stories, skills, and wisdom—and reimagine them in a way that resonates with the tech-savvy generation? This thesis became my way of answering those questions and creating a path (a first step) where tradition and innovation can walk hand in hand. It’s not just research to me but I see this as a mission to celebrate where we come from while inspiring where we’re headed.

Now that I’ve completed my master’s degree, my plan is to continue on this mission to merge the gap between tradition and technology. I am determined to learn from experts and communities involved in heritage revitalisation projects, drawing inspiration from their success stories while exploring creative ways to reconnect with my roots and the broader dimensions of heritage.

What advice would you give to a student starting their masters degree?

Start your master’s degree with an open mind and a well-stocked grocery cabinet —you’ll need both. Embrace the chaos: some days, you’ll feel like a genius, and other days, you’ll Google, “How to finish a thesis in three months.” Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they seem “basic”—it’s how you learn, and your professors have seen worse, trust me. Lastly but most importantly, find your people. Graduate school is really a marathon, not a sprint, and having a support system of fellow stressed-out students and people who can encourage you (for me it was my roommate, faith community and family) makes the journey not only survivable but surprisingly fun and worth it. And remember, the finish line isn’t just about the degree; it’s about the growth, grit, and occasional insights you pick up along the way.