Alumni authors
Al-Musalli, Alaa, TWS 2019
The Age of Silence [historical fiction]
At Bay Press, 2026.
Mentor: JJ Lee
Alrawi, Karim, TWS 2010
Book of Sands: A Novel of the Arab Uprising [fiction]
HarperAvenue-HarperCollins, 2015.
HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction (Winner)
Amazon.ca First Novel Award (Finalist)
Mentor: Anne Stone
Ashton, Jennifer, TWS 2018
People Like Frank and Other Stories From the Edge of Normal. [fiction]
Tidewater Press, 2020.
Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English (Finalist)
Writer in Residence for BC History Magazine, 2021/22
Mentor: Stella Harvey
Baker, Carleigh, TWS 2012
Bad Endings [fiction]
Anvil, 2017.
City of Vancouver Book Award (Winner)
Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award (Finalist)
Mentor: Shaena Lambert and Timothy Taylor
Basran, Gurjinder, TWS 2006
Everything Was Good-bye: A Novel [fiction]
Mother Tongue, 2010.
Rpt.: Penguin, 2012.
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (Winner)
Search for the Great B.C. Novel Contest (Winner)
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (Semifinalist)
Someone You Love Is Gone [fiction]
Penguin Random House Canada, 2017.
HarperCollins, 2017.
Mentor: Wayde Compton
B-e, Lindsay, TWS 2009
The Cyborg Anthology [poetry]
Brick Books, 2020.
Mentor: Rachel Rose
Bird, Kate, TWS 2004
Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos From a Decade That Changed the City [non-fiction]
Greystone, 2016.
City On Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes [non-fiction]
Greystone, 2017.
Mentor: Stephen Osborne
Borrie, Cathie, TWS 2005
The Long Hello: The Other Side of Alzheimer鈥檚 [memoir]
Nightwing, 2010.
Rpt. as The Long Hello: Memory, My Mother, and Me. Simon and Schuster Canada, 2015.
Mentor: Betsy Warland
Brown, E.R., TWS 2004
Almost Criminal: A Novel [fiction]
Dundurn, 2013.
Rpt. as Almost Criminal. Trans. Yoshihiro Masaki. Hayakawa, 2015.
Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Paperback Original (Finalist)
Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel (Finalist)
Mentor: Caroline Adderson
Brown, Janie, TWS 2011
Radical Acts of Love
Penguin Random House, 2021.
Mentor: Brian Payton
Bryant, Cullene, TWS 2010 and TWS 2012
God Is a Laughing Bedouin [poetry]
Inanna, 2017.
Mentors: Ivan Coyote and Brian Payton
Cabral, Esmeralda, TWS 2010
How to Clean a Fish: And Other Adventures in Portugal [non-fiction]
University of Alberta Press, 2023.
Mentor: Brian Payton
Chang, Janie, TWS 2011
Mentor: Shaena Lambert
Three Souls: A Novel [fiction]
HarperCollins, 2013.
Rpt.: William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2013.
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (Finalist)
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (Longlisted)
Dragon Springs Road: A Novel [fiction]
HarperCollins, 2017.
William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2017.
International DUBLIN Literary Award (Longlisted)
Globe and Mail National Bestseller
The Library of Legends: A Novel [fiction]
HarperCollins, 2020.
William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2020.
Globe and Mail National Bestseller
The Porcelain Moon: A Novel of France, the Great War, and Forbidden Love [fiction]
HarperCollins, 2023.
William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2023.
The Phoenix Crown (co-authored with Kate Quinn) [fiction]
William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2024.
The Fourth Princess: A Gothic Novel of Old Shanghai [fiction]
William Morrow-HarperCollins, 2026.
Cragg, Carys, TWS 2014
Dead Reckoning: How I Came to Meet the Man Who Murdered My Father [non-fiction]
Arsenal Pulp, 2017.
Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Mentor: Charles Demers
De Montigny, Suzanne, TWS 2013
The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy [fiction]
MuseItYoung-MuseItUp, 2014.
Global Ebook Award for Fantasy/Alternate History (Winner, Gold)
The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Deception [fiction]
Books We Love, 2016.
Mentor: Hiromi Goto
Drobnies, Adrienne, TWS 2009
Salt and Ashes [poetry]
Signature Editions, 2019.
Fred Kerner Book Award (Winner)
Fred Cogswell Award (Longlisted)
Exile鈥檚 Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition for Best Suite by an Emerging Poet, 2017 (for the suite of poems 鈥淩andonn茅es" in Salt and Ashes)
Mentor: Rachel Rose
Dunic, Leanne, TWS 2011
To Love the Coming End [poetry]
Bookthug, 2017.
Mentor: Jen Currin
Elrick, Michelle, TWS 2005
To Speak [poetry]
Muses鈥� Company-J. Gordon Shillingford, 2010.
then/again [poetry]
Blewointment-Nightwood, 2017.
Mentor: Steven Galloway
Fantetti, Eufemia, TWS 2007
A Recipe for Disaster & Other Unlikely Tales of Love [short fiction]
Mother Tongue, 2013.
F.G. Bressani Literary Prize for Short Fiction (Winner)
Danuta Gleed Literary Award (Finalist)
Mentor: Wayde Compton
Feenstra, Mark, TWS 2008
Black Magic (Black Records Book 1) [fiction]
Amazon Digital, 2016.
Black Market (Black Records Book 2) [fiction]
Amazon Digital, 2017.
Black Ice (Black Records Book 3) [fiction]
Amazon Digital, 2017.
Mentor: Steven Galloway
Fernandes, Raoul, TWS 2009
Transmitter and Receiver: Poems [poetry]
Nightwood, 2015.
Gerald Lampert Memorial Award (Finalist)
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Winner)
Mentor: Rachel Rose
Flood, Joan B., TWS 2008
New Girl [fiction]
Euterpe Pan-Musa, 2012.
Orpheus GLBT Fiction Contest Grand Prize (Winner)
Left Unsaid [fiction]
Signature, 2017.
Mentor: Wayde Compton
Gardiner, Elee Kraljii, TWS 2006 and 2009
V6A: Writing from Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown, with John Mikhail Asfour, eds. [anthology]
Eastside. Arsenal Pulp, 2012.
City of Vancouver Book Award (Finalist)
The Stanza Project: Thursdays Writing Collective & MLPPROOSTEN ARCHITECTURE, ed. [anthology]
Otter, 2013.
Voice to Voice: An Anthology of Music and Transformation, ed. [anthology]
Otter, 2015.
Serpentine Loop [poetry]
Anvil, 2016.
Mentor: Wayde Compton, Rachel Rose
Goh, Kagan, TWS 2010 and 2012
Who Let in the Sky?: A Son's Tribute to His Father Goh Poh Seng's Courageous Struggle with Parkinson's Disease. [poetry and non-fiction]
Celestial-Select, 2012.
Mentor: Ivan Coyote, Shaena Lambert
Hill, Leslie, TWS 2007
Dressed for Dancing: My Sojourn in the Findhorn Foundation. [memoir]
Incite Press, 2012.
Whistler Independent Book Award for Non-Fiction (Longlisted)
Mentor: Wayde Compton
Honeybourn, Jennifer, TWS 2004
Wesley James Ruined My Life [fiction]
Swoon-Macmillan, 2017.
Mentor: Caroline Adderson
Hurford, Dianna, TWS 2005
Creative Community Planning: Transformative Engagement Methods for Working at the Edge, with Wendy Sarkissian and Christine Wenman. [non-fiction]
Earthscan-Routledge, 2010.
Planning Institute of Australia Award for Planning Scholarship (Winner)
Mentor: Miranda Pearson
John-Kehewin, Wanda, TWS 2011
In the Dog House [poetry]
Talonbooks, 2013.
Mentor: Brian Payton
Karlinsky, Harry, TWS 2009
The Evolution of Inanimate Objects: The Life and Collected Works of Thomas Darwin (1857-1879) [fiction]
Serotonin/Wayside-Insomniac, 2010.
Rpt.: Friday Project-HarperCollins, 2012.
Wellcome Trust Book Prize (Longlisted)
The Stonehenge Letters: A Novel [fiction]
Friday Project-HarperCollins, 2014.
Rpt.: Coach House, 2014.
Mentor: Anne Stone
King, Linda, TWS 2001
Dream Street Details [poetry]
Shoe Music, 2013.
Reality Wayfarers: Poems [poetry]
Shoe Music, 2014.
No Dimes for the Dancing Gypsies [poetry]
BlazeVOX, 2016.
Ongoing Repairs to Something Significant [poetry]
BlazeVOX, 2017.
Mentor: Betsy Warland
Kirton, Jonina, TWS 2007
Page as Bone - Ink as Blood: Poems [poetry]
Talonbooks, 2015.
An Honest Woman [poetry]
Talonbooks, 2017.
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Finalist)
Mentor: Miranda Pearson
Knight, Chelene, TWS 2013
Braided Skin: Poems.
Mother Tongue, 2015.
Dear Current Occupant: A Memoir. [non-fiction]
Book*hug, 2018.
Mentor: Jen Currin
Larsen, Sonja, TWS 2008
Red Star Tattoo: My Life as a Girl Revolutionary [non-fiction]
Random House Canada, 2016.
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction (Winner)
Hilary Weston Writers Trust Creative Non-Fiction Award (Shortlist)
Mentor: Wayde Compton
Lawson, Charlotte J., TWS 2014
Monsoons: Memories of India [non-fiction]
CreateSpace, 2015.
Mentor: Charles Demers
Leavitt, Sarah, TWS 2002
Tangles: A Story 911吃瓜 Alzheimer鈥檚, My Mother, and Me [graphic memoir]
Freehand, 2010.
Rpt.: Jonathan Cape-Random House, 2010; Skyhorse, 2012; Das gro脽e Durcheinander: Alzheimer, meine Mutter und ich. Beltz & Gelberg, 2013.
CBC Bookie Award for Best Comic or Graphic Novel (Winner)
Writers鈥� Trust of Canada Non-Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Alberta Book Publishing Awards for Book Illustration (Finalist)
Alberta Readers鈥� Choice Award (Finalist)
Mentor: Betsy Warland
Leventoyannis Harvey, Stella, TWS 2004
Nicolai鈥檚 Daughters [fiction]
Signature, 2012.
The Brink of Freedom [fiction]
Signature, 2015.
Mentor: Caroline Adderson
Mavin, John, TWS 2006
Rage [fiction]
Thistledown, 2017.
Mentor: Steven Galloway
McCandless, Kate, TWS 2001
Trans. of Mitsu Suzuki. A White Tea Bowl: 100 Haiku From 100 Years of Life [poetry]
Rodmell, 2014.
Mentor: Betsy Warland
McClure, Melia, TWS 2003
The Delphi Room [fiction]
Chizine, 2013.
Mentor: Caroline Adderson
McEwen, Joan, TWS 2006
Innocence on Trial: The Framing of Ivan Henry [non-fiction]
Heritage House, 2014.
Arthur Ellis Award for Non-Fiction (Finalist)
Mentor: Steven Galloway
McNulty, Lori, TWS 2003
Life on Mars [fiction]
Goose Lane, 2017.
Mentor: Betsy Warland
Melfi, Marco, TWS 2020
Routine Maintenance [poetry]
Gaspereau Press, 2025.
Mentor: Kayla Czaga
Mellor, Jane, TWS 2007
Delicate Availability: Prose and Poetry [poetry and short fiction]
Friesen, 2012.
Mentor: Miranda Pearson
Naag, Sabyasachi, TWS 2018
Hands Like Trees [fiction]
Ronsdale Press, 2023.
Uncharted [poetry]
Mansfield Press, 2021.
Mentor: Stella Harvey
Par茅, Arleen, TWS 2002
Paper Trail [fiction and poetry]
NeWest, 2007.
Victoria Butler Book Prize (Winner)
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Finalist)
Leaving Now: A Novel [fiction]
Caitlin, 2012.
Lake of Two Mountains [poetry]
Brick, 2014.
Governor General鈥檚 Award for Poetry (Winner)
He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car [poetry]
Caitlin, 2015.
The Girls With Stone Faces [poetry]
Brick, 2017.
Mentor: Betsy Warland
Saklikar, Rene茅 Sarojini, TWS 2009 and 2010
children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections [poetry]
Blewointment-Nightwood, 2013.
Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Poetry (Winner)
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Finalist)
The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them, with Wayde Compton, eds. [anthology]
Anvil-911吃瓜 Public Square, 2015.
Mentor: Wayde Compton, Rachel Rose
Saxifrage, Carrie, TWS 2011
The Big Swim: Coming Ashore in a World Adrift [non-fiction]
New Society-Douglas & McIntyre, 2015.
George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature (Finalist)
Mentor: Brian Payton
Schofield, Anakana, TWS 2001
Malarky: A Novel in Episodes [fiction]
Biblioasis, 2012.
Rpt.: Oneworld, 2013.
Amazon.ca First Novel Award (Winner)
Late Night Library's 2013 Debut-litzer Prize (Winner)
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Martin John [fiction]
John Metcalf-Biblioasis, 2015.
Rpt.: And Other Stories, 2016.
Scotiabank Giller Prize (Finalist)
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Mentor: Lynn Coady
Sommersby, Jennifer, TWS 2007
[As Eliza Gordon] Must Love Otters [fiction]
West 26th Street, 2013.
[As Eliza Gordon] Neurotica [fiction]
West 26th Street, 2014.
[As Eliza Gordon] Hollie Porter Builds a Raft [fiction]
West 26th Street, 2017.
[As Eliza Gordon] Dear Dwayne, With Love [fiction]
Lake Union, 2018.
Mentor: Steven Galloway
Thompson, Rachel, TWS 2004
Galaxy [poetry]
Anvil, 2011.
The Writer鈥檚 Studio First Book Competition (Winner)
Mentor: Miranda Pearson
Tomita, Suzanne Scott, TWS 2014
Until Even the Angels [fiction]
Penguin Random House, 2015.
Mentor: Kevin Chong
Tsabari, Ayelet, TWS 2007
The Best Place on Earth: Stories [short fiction]
HarperCollins, 2013.
Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature (Winner)
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (Longlisted)
Edward Lewis Wallant Award (Winner)
Mentor: Wayde Compton
Waterfall, Rhonda, TWS 2003
The Only Thing I Have: Stories [short fiction]
Arsenal Pulp, 2010.
Mentor: Stephen Osborne
Wilket, Sam, TWS 2021
A Good Daughter's Ghost [YA fiction]
Annick Press, 2026.
Mentor: Leanne Dunic
Zilm, Jennifer, TWS 2013
the whole and broken yellows: Van Gogh poems and others [poetry]
Frog Hollow, 2013.
The Waiting Room: Poems [poetry]
BookThug, 2016.
October Notebook
dancing girl press, 2015.
The Missing Field
Guernica Edition, 2018.
Mentor: Jen Curri
Zomparelli, Daniel, TWS 2008
Davie Street Translations [poetry]
Talonbooks, 2012.
Rom Com, with Dina Del Bucchia [poetry]
Talonbooks, 2015.
Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person: Stories [fiction]
Arsenal Pulp, 2017.
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (Finalist)
Mentor: Rachel Rose