PRISM international is made possible with the support of a team willing to offer their time and passion for the written word. We’d like to introduce you to some of the amazing people who contribute to the print and digital versions of the magazine.
Mark Cameron
New bio: Mark Cameron is a recent graduate of UBC (Major in English, Minor in Creative Writing) who is pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from University of King’s College in Halifax. After self-publishing two novels, Mark is working on two book-length projects that he hopes to have traditionally published: a Young Adult speculative fiction novel and a memoir about his family’s year-long travels in a camper van. On the poetry front, Mark is thrilled that his poem “Perimeters” recently won third prize in Pulp Literature’s 2023 Magpie Award for Poetry.
Emily Cann
Maggy Chu
Chia-Hua Chu (professionally known as “Maggy Chu”) is a long-term resident in Japan. She is currently working at a women’s university in Nishinomiya and is a teacher trainer and curriculum developer for a language institute in Osaka. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature (Hons.) and a Master of Education, specializing in languages and literacy for teaching English as an additional language. She spends her free time reading, sewing, and practicing aerial silks.
Samantha Chen
new bio: Samantha Chen is a Taiwanese Canadian writer and nature lover from Vancouver, BC. She is currently a BFA Creative Writing student at the University of British Columbia, and when she is not writing poems or stories, she loves to bike, rock climb, go for walks and be outdoors.
Jaime Jacques
Jaime Jacques is a writer of South Asian and Scot Irish descent who lives on the unceded ancestral territory of Mi’kma’ki. She worked internationally as a journalist and travel writer for many years before returning to Canada in 2020 and finding her voice as a poet. She is the author of Moon El Salvador and her reporting and creative nonfiction can be found in Lonely Planet, Salon, Narratively, Roads and Kingdoms, and NPR. Her poetry has been published in Rogue Agent, Variant Lit, Birdcoat Quarterly, and Cheat River Review among others. She writes her best lines when asleep or sitting in a cloud of steam at the YMCA. Connect with her on the astral plane or on Instagram @calamity__jaime.
Allegra Kaplan
Allegra Stevenson-Kaplan (she/her) is a queer writer of Jewish Ukrainian descent based in the unceded lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən People. She is an incoming MA in English student at the University of British Columbia. Her writing has appeared—or is forthcoming—in The Warren Undergraduate Review, The Albatross English Undergraduate Journal, Unstamatic Magazine, nationalpoetrymonth.ca, KULA Journal, IDEAH Journal, Beaver Magazine, and elsewhere. She was previously a Poetry Editor for The Warren Undergraduate Review and a Research Assistant for the University of Victoria’s Crafting Communities project.
Photo of Claire & Tio by Erin Flegg Photography (@erinflegg_photo)
Claire Matthews is a bi, neurodiverse writer, editor, and creative facilitator. She lives on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Her poetry recently received second place in CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize and is forthcoming in Prairie Fire. In her spare time, she makes jam and poor decisions.
Anna Pembroke
Anna Pembroke is a writer and English teacher based in London, England. Raised in South Africa and Nigeria, she taught in Malaysia for a year before beginning a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at the Open University. She spent the Fall 2018 semester at the Aegean Center in Paros, Greece, studying creative writing and photography. Previous work can be found in the Journal of Compressed Fiction, Milk Candy Review and Ellipsis Zine among others. Find her on Twitter @annaisediting.
Amy Wang is a Chinese-Canadian interdisciplinary writer based on the unceded territory of the Syilx (Okanagan) People. Their practice explores the overlap between queerness, disability, and cultural identity, all of which pertain to lived experiences. Amy’s work has been published in The Garden Statuary and exhibited in IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival. They are currently an MFA student at University of British Columbia (Okanagan).
Léa Taranto new bio: Léa Taranto (she/her) is a Chinese Jewish Canadian writer who lives with life-threatening OCD and comorbid disorders. Currently, she resides on the traditional, unceded land of the the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples in British Columbia. She has an MFA from UBC and is an alum from The Writer’s Studio. Her work has been published in: Vallum Magazine, Room Magazine, Emerge 20: The Writer’s Studio Anthology, Untethered Magazine, and Transitions Magazine, among others.
Editorial Assistants
Jade Y. Liu
Bio:
Jade Y. Liu (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian writer and poet from the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, BC). She holds a Bachelor of Arts from UBC, double majoring in English Literature (Hons.) and Creative Writing. A recipient of the 2020 George McWhirter Prize in Poetry, she was shortlisted for Arc Poetry Magazine‘s 2022 Poem of the Year and won Reader’s Choice in CV2’s 2022 2-Day Poem Contest. Her work also appears in Chestnut Review, HAD, and elsewhere. She currently studies Law at UBC.
Stacy Thomas is a student of Creative Writing and German Studies at UBC. She writes comics and poetry, and is currently working on a creative nonfiction book about living with ADHD and a poetry collection about mental illness, family and the Okanagan. She is a BC Arts Council scholarship recipient, and has published poetry in Plenitude, Tofu Ink & Pearls among others.