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NewsJanuary 7, 2010 Room Magazine's Annual Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-fiction Contest – 2010It's that time of year again—sharpen your pencils or fire up your laptop and send us your fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction contest entries. December 27, 2009 Room Magazine's Call for Submissions on Women and SpiritualityRoom's 2010 December issue (33.4) will examine Women and Spirituality. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines "spiritual" as "...relating to the human spirit or soul; not of physical things." How do you define it? We're looking for writing that transcends the material realm and explores what lies beneath, beyond, and above. Send us your best original, unpublished fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. We are also looking for suitable artwork and illustrations. For submission guidelines, click here. Submit to the attention of Clélie Rich by June 30, 2010. November 13, 2009 Room Magazine's Call for Historical Writing SubmissionsRoom magazine's Historical Writing issue will be published in the fall of 2010 so start 'looking back!' Room is looking for original, unpublished fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction that relates to the theme of history--both distant and in the more immediate past. Room is committed to publishing the best in contemporary women's writing, so please send us your very best pieces of historical fiction, non-fiction and poetry. How do the 'past and present' intermingle? Is time a circle? Are we cursed and blessed by those who come before us? Or is historical amnesia ever a good thing? We are also looking for suitable artwork and illustrations. Please submit to the attention of Janet Nicol by March 30, 2010. October 27, 2009 2009 Contest Winners AnnouncedCongratulations to the winners of Room's 2009 Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction Contest! Thank you to all who participated this year's contest. Look for first and second place winners in issue 33.1, coming to newsstands soon! Our winners for 2009: Fiction: 1st Place: “The Glorious Mysteries” Audrey J. Whitson 2nd Place: “Ghosting” M.E. Powell Honourable Mention: “Sisters” Kimberley Alcock
Poetry: 1st Place: “I told my first stranger I was pregnant” Jessica Hiemstra-van der Horst 2nd Place: “Funny Bone” Wenda Nairn Honourable Mention: “The Virgin Mary is a Collapsed Umbrella” Julie Mahfood
Creative Non-Fiction: 1st Place: “April the Cruelest” Adrianne Kalfopoulou 2nd Place: “Why Wake Dayo?” Carla Hartenberger Honourable Mention: “Behind the Glass” Ruth Morris Schneider
Judges Thank you as well to each of our esteemed judges. Each judge shares her thoughts on the winning pieces in each category.
Fiction Mary Borsky Mary Borsky has written two collections of short stories: “Influence of the Moon" (Porcupine's Quill), and "Cobalt Blue" (Thomas Allen). She has also written the Benny Bensky books for children (Tundra), and is now in the midst of writing another book of fiction. “In short stories - as in life! - I value emotional connection, truthfulness and energy. The winners are small gems that have stayed with me. "Glorious Mysteries" is a quiet story, but it engaged me completely. I was pulled into Natalie's world, the world of the hospital and the world of loss. Natalie's rebellion felt important and real.”
Poetry Sachiko Murakami Sachiko Murakami's first collection of poems, The Invisibility Exhibit (Talonbooks 2008), responds to narratives written and unwritten about Vancouver's missing and murdered women. She holds an MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Concordia University (Montreal). Her poetry has most recently appeared in Prairie Fire, EVENT, and West Coast Line. She has worked for Matrix, Room, Event and the Capilano Review, and is a past member of Vancouver's Kootenay School of Writing collective. The Invisibility Exhibit was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book of poetry from the League of Canadian Poets, and the 2008 Governor General's Award for Poetry. Recently moved from Vancouver, she now lives in Toronto. “The emotion of this poem, like the unborn child that is its subject, makes itself known quietly: beneath surfaces, unrelentingly present. The act of reading is transformed from an incorporeal, intellectual activity as the irreducible body edges its way into consciousness at the literal edges of the page. Preoccupation edges its way into the life of the speaker's mind, and inconsequential scraps of everyday life become powerful markers for her pregnancy: library books greased with a stranger's meal, her desire to change the plot of novels already written. Reading becomes matter, and it is a matter of life and death. A moving and well-crafted poem.”
Creative Non-fiction Deborah Campbell Deborah Campbell is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Harper’s, The Walrus, The Economist, Guardian, Adbusters, New Scientist, Asia Times, Utne, and has been included in anthologies and essay collections on three continents. Known for literary nonfiction that involves spending long periods of time in the regions she covers, she is the author of the nonfiction book This Heated Place. An adjunct professor in the Creative Writing Department at the University of British Columbia, she has guest lectured at universities around the world. In 2008 she won the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for her writing on Iraqi refugees for Harper’s and in 2007 won two National Magazine Awards for her reportage on Iran. "This essay, which weaves together the story of a woman's visit from Greece to see her university-aged daughter in New York with the myth of Persephone and the history of displaced Palestinians, is a poetic exploration of the nature of grief and desire. Pieced together from fragments, it is also a study in lost identity and the arrival of a new season. This piece stood out from the rest not only for the elegance and clarity of the writing but for the way it successfully brings together numerous narrative strands, each of them detailed and specific (for the universal can only be found in the specific), to illuminate the complexity of the human journey. An intelligent, poignant meditation on love and loss." September 20, 2009 Marketing Volunteer NeededRoom is looking for a qualified woman to join our volunteer collective as marketing lead. The position requires approximately four hours per week on average. Responsibilities include promoting the public face of Room through events, promotional material, partnerships with media and literary organizations, and submission and subscription drives. The marketing lead will work independently, overseeing members of the marketing committee, and will meet with the collective monthly in downtown Vancouver. Send a CV and cover letter to contactus@roommagazine.com if you are interested in this volunteer position. More detail on the responsibilities is available on request. August 9, 2009 Room Magazine's Call for Submissions on the Theme of Competition – Deadline ExtendedRoom magazine's Competition issue will be published in the spring of 2010, in celebration of the Winter Olympics! Room is looking for original, unpublished fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction that relates to the theme of Competition. Room is committed to publishing the best in contemporary women's writing, so please send us your very best pieces on sports, relationship and workplace dynamics, personal electronics, potato sack races, and any other topic that reflects this competitive theme. We are also looking for suitable artwork and illustrations too. Please note on your envelope (we do still accept hard-copy submissions as well as e-mail ones) and in your cover letter that you are submitting to Room's Competition issue. And be sure to check out our guidelines before submitting. The deadline for submissions to Room's Competition issue has been extended to October 1st, 2009. We look forward to your take on this exciting theme! July 13, 2009 Room Magazine's Call for Submissions on the Theme of TravelRoom magazine's Travel issue will be published in the summer of 2010 to get those adventurous juices going! Room is looking for original, unpublished fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction that relates to the theme of Travel and Expat life. Room is committed to publishing the best in contemporary women's writing, so please send us your very best pieces on unique travel experiences, time spent living abroad and the overall good, bad and the ugly that can accompany travel. Break out your backpacking stories, those scary bus rides, the markets, the people, the food, the smells; we want to be there with you on your journey! This issue will be focused on the experience of travel, both outside and inside, not specifically vacation pieces. We are also looking for suitable artwork and illustrations. Please note on your envelope (we do still accept hard-copy submissions as well as e-mail ones) and in your cover letter that you are submitting to Room's Travel issue. And be sure to check out our guidelines before submitting. The deadline for submissions to Room's Travel issue is January 31, 2010. We look forward to your original take on this interesting theme! March 29, 2009 Room Magazine's Call for Submissions on the Theme of CompetitionRoom magazine's Competition issue will be published in the spring of 2010, in celebration of the Winter Olympics! Room is looking for original, unpublished, fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction that relates to the theme of Competition. Room is committed to publishing the best in contemporary women's writing, so please send us your very best pieces on sports, relationship and workplace dynamics, personal electronics, potato sack races, and any other topic that reflects this competitive theme. We are also looking for suitable artwork and illustrations too. Please note on your envelope (we do still accept hard-copy submissions as well as e-mail ones) and in your cover letter that you are submitting to Room's Competition issue. And be sure to check out our guidelines before submitting. The deadline for submissions to Room's Competition issue is June 1st, 2009. We look forward to your take on this exciting theme! February 23, 2009 Room Magazine Annual 2009 Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-fiction ContestIt's that time of year again—sharpen your pencils or fire up your laptop and send us your fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction contest entries. November 27, 2008 2008 Contest Winners Announced!Congratulations to the winners of Room’s 2008 Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction Contest! We were thoroughly impressed with the quality of this year’s submissions, and extend our congratulations to all contestants for sharing your best efforts with us. Look for first and second place winners in issue 32.1, coming to newsstands in February 2009. Please see our website for honourable mentions, where they will be published in full. The winners are as follows:
Judges Fiction Judge: Ivan Coyote Poetry Judge: Evelyn Lau Creative Non-fiction Judge: Rita Moir
July 14, 2008 Call for Submissions – Speculative LiteratureCall for submissions to Room magazine's first speculative literature issue, to be published in Spring 2009. Room is looking for original, unpublished, speculative fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Send us your very best, most literary science fiction, fantasy, ghost stories, fairy stories, magic realism, and surrealism submissions that reflect Room's commitment to the best in contemporary women's writing. And we're looking for suitable artwork and illustrations too. Please note on your envelope and in your cover letter that you are submitting to Room’s speculative literature issue. And be sure to check out our guidelines before submitting. Deadline for submissions to Room's speculative literature issue is January 15, 2009. April 8, 2008 Three Gorgeous Rooms, Three Great Readers!Join Room magazine and host Joy Gugeler at the BC Book and Magazine Week Literary Tour to hear poetry and short fiction from current and future issues of Canada's best literary magazine by and for women. In this half-hour event, Emily Wight, Claire Tacon, and Jamella Hagen will give snappy readings from works appearing three consecutive Rooms: starting with 30.4—"Love and Other Indoor Sports"—and moving into sneak peaks from our next two upcoming issues. Thursday April 24, 7:45 pm - 8:20 pmLugz Coffee Lounge, 2525 Main Street (at Broadway) as part of the BC Book & Magazine Week Literary Tour www.bcbookandmagazineweek.com December 13, 2007 Room Magazine Annual 2008 Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-fiction ContestIt's that time of year again—sharpen your pencils or fire up your laptop and send us your fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction contest entries. December 1, 2007 2007 Contest Winners Announced!Congratulations to the following finalists in Room's 2007 Poetry and Fiction Contest!
Judges' Biographies Poetry Judge – Stephanie Bolster Stephanie Bolster's first book, White Stone: The Alice Poems, won the Governor-General's Award and the Gerald Lampert Award in 1998. She has also published Two Bowls of Milk and Pavilion, recently edited The Ishtar Gate: Last and Selected Poems by the late Ottawa poet Diana Brebner, and is guest editor for the inaugural The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2007 anthology. Raised in Burnaby, B.C., she teaches Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal. Fiction Judge – Laisha Rosnau Laisha Rosnau is a novelist and poet. Her first novel, The Sudden Weight of Snow (McClelland and Steward 2002), appeared on best-seller lists across Canada and was runner-up for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Notes on Leaving (Nightwood 2004), won the Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award in 2005. Laisha lives in Prince George, B.C., where she is working on a second collection of poetry and a second novel during the nap times of her infant son. May 28, 2007 BC Volunteer of the Year AwardBC Association of Magazine Publishers press release - May 28, 2007 I'd like to thank everyone who nominated me for this award; I am truly honoured to receive it. This industry is fuelled by the volunteers whose passion for publishing propels them -- and their publications -- forward, and I am thrilled to have been a part of it for the last decade. It is more than a labour of love; it is a desire to ensure that there continues to be room for new voices, creativity and self-expression in the Canadian media spectrum. Every single volunteer on the Room board should be recognized for the enormous number of hours they devote to seeing that this publication does what it can to promote and encourage Canadian literary talent. I am lucky to be part of such a wonderful group of publishing professionals and I accept the award on behalf of all of my fellow volunteers. To us! -- Lisa Manfield March 22, 2007 Room Celebrates the Big 30!This year, Room has a lot to celebrate—the premier Canadian journal of female writing and art is turning 30!To commemorate this momentous milestone, we shortened our name (from Room of One's Own to, simply, Room), updated our look, added new editorial features, and of course, had a party! A wine and cheese gala was held at Centre A in Vancouver on March 21 to launch issue 30.1. Against the backdrop of artistic works by Sally Lee and Bernadette Phan, guests were treated to a reading from Diane Haynes' interview with Devyani Satlzman, poetry readings by Elizabeth Bachinsky and Anna Helena Warje, and a musical performance by Mary Castle.
2006 Contest Winners Announced!Congratulations to the following finalists in Room's 2006 Poetry and Fiction Contest! The winning pieces have been published in issues 30.1. The honourable mentions are available online in PDF format (click the links below).
2005 Contest WinnersCongratulations to the following finalists in Room's 2005 Poetry and Fiction Contest! The winning pieces are available online in PDF format (click the links below).
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Our site is updated quarterly. please bookmark it and visit us again soon. © 2007 - copyright for all poetry and fiction is held by the authors We invite your feedback and inquiries. please write to us at: Room Magazine, P.O. Box 46160, Station D, Vancouver, BC Canada V6J 5G5 or send e-mail to contactus@roommagazine.com. Site designed by Multimedia : Design : Solutions. Site hosted by Radiant Communications. |
The BC Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP) is happy to announce that Lisa Manfield has been chosen as B.C. Volunteer of the Year Award. Lisa has contributed enormously to the Canadian magazine industry through her volunteer editorial and operational work with Room magazine, her work with future writers and publishers, and her many years of dedicated service on the boards of directors of both Vancouver's Word on the Street and BCAMP. Lisa was chosen as the most deserving nominee out of several received from the B.C.-published magazines. The final decision was made by Brian Kaufman, editor of subTerrain and one of the founders of BCAMP.
Lisa's experience and knowledge of both the cultural and business sides of magazine publishing has been extremely valuable in her past work on the board of The Word on the Street and her ongoing work on the BCAMP board, where she sits as vice-president. She is also the current chair of BCAMP's Professional Development committee, where she leads discussions on the programming for Camp BCAMP and Magazines West, and represents the organization at events in other Canadian cities.
