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Indigenizing Theatre: An interview with Kamloopa Fire Creator Kim Senklip Harvey

Kamloopa is an Indigenous artistic ceremony that follows two urban Indigenous sisters, Kilawna and Mikaya, and their new friend, Edith, as they struggle in their own ways to understand themselves and their cultures. As they each come to terms with what it means to reconnect with their homelands, ancestors, and one another, it becomes clear that this story is not a hero’s journey; it doesn’t follow the “typical” three act play in structure or story arc. The artistic ceremony focusses on kinship relations, rather than a central conflict: this is a journey between women, a journey that happens within, between, and outside of themselves. It’s a journey that happens on Indian time: existing now, bringing the past, and holding the future. As the three women move through the world, they face issues of assimilation, disconnection, and loss, and the audience is witness to every ignorant, painful, funny, and awkward moment of what it means to find your way home again.

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“Letter to My Former Selves” by Lydia Kwa Wins the Earle Birney Poetry Prize

PRISM international is proud to announce the winner of the 2017 Earle Birney Poetry Prize is Lydia Kwa for her poem “Letter to My Former Selves” published in PRISM 56.1: Liminal, available now!

Earle Birney established UBC’s MFA program in Creative Writing in 1965–the first university program in Canada. The Earle Birney Poetry Prize, awarded annually and worth $500, is PRISM‘s only in-house prize. A very special thanks to Mme. Justice Wailan Low for her generous and ongoing support.

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Announcing the Shortlist for the 2018 Grouse Grind Literary Prize for V. Short Forms!

We’re extremely excited to announce that the following stories have been shortlisted for the 2018 Grouse Grind Lit Prize for V. Short Forms!

Narrowing the longlist to just six was extremely hard, so many congratulations to the shortlisted writers.

Check back soon for the winners announcement, as chosen by our PRISM editorial board.

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The Creative Process: Portrait of Yiyun Li

Interview and portrait by Mia Funk

“There is a clear-cut: old life, that’s old country, and here’s there’s new life, new country. It is an advantage. You are looking at life through an old pair of eyes and a new pair of eyes. And there’s always that ambivalence––Where do you belong? And how do you belong? And I do think these are advantages of immigrant writers or writers with two languages or who have two worlds.”

–YIYUN LI

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Get to Know: Casey Plett

Interview by Jessica Johns

Hello friends! Meet Casey Plett, author of Little Fish and A Safe Girl to Love and co-editor of the anthology Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers. She is the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Transgender Fiction and received an Honour of Distinction from The Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers.

During my volunteer role at Room Magazine’s 2018 Growing Room Literary Festival, I had the great pleasure of hearing Casey read from Little Fish and getting to know her in-between events. In addition to admiring her work and discussion during the panels, Casey’s behind-the-scenes demeanor was something that has stayed with me. She offered a kind of warmth, humorous levity, and generosity to the volunteers and audience members that I think goes above and beyond the expectations of writers at events, especially during a time where authors and volunteers alike are stressed, exhausted, and usually running on fumes. It is something that usually flies under the radar to the comparatively large-scale attention given to readings and panels, but one I think is important. Yesterday, I started reading Little Fish. And already the humour, care, and depth that I saw during that weekend, I’m finding everywhere in her storytelling. If you get the opportunity, get this book and go hear her read. It’s so damn worth it.

Casey’s debut novel Little Fish is out now with Arsenal Pulp Press and you can find her on Twitter at @caseyplett and at her website, https://caseyplett.wordpress.com/.

Casey will be reading at the Vancouver Public Library for Incite: Celebrating Arsenal Pulp Press Amber Dawn, Casey Plett, and Joshua Whitehead on May 23 at 7:30 pm. Do not miss it!

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