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Career possibilities

Alumnus Connor Gaston and cameramen on a film set
Alumnus Connor Gaston on set of his film "The Devout." The film won the top prize (Best Motion Picture) at the Leo Awards and various other awards including Best Screenwriting for Gaston himself. Photo: David Bukach.

What can I do with a degree in writing?

The ability to communicate is critical to your success in life—and at work. Our students gain many skills that can be applied to a wide range of careers. We tackle how to communicate clearly and embody complex themes and ideas through human stories and vivid language.

Our students learn to think critically about how words and stories are used—to fight against clichés and propaganda and to discover their unique creative voices. Many of our undergraduate and MFA alumni publish major works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or produce plays and films.

Career options for writing graduates

  • Communications coordinator
  • Creative writer
  • Editor/copywriter
  • Entrepreneur
  • Film publicist
  • Fund development
  • Literary agent
  • Marketing
  • Play/screenwriter
  • Producer
  • Proposal writer
  • Publishing assistant
  • Social media coordinator
  • Teacher/instructor
  • Technical writer

More information from UVic Co-op + Careers (pdf)

Develop your career

Meet our alumni

Esi Edugyan

Novelist

Esi's novel Half Blood Blues won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction. It was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize, and was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her first novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published in both Canada and the US, as well as the UK, Holland and Hungary. It was named a "2004 Book To Remember" by the New York Public Library, and was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Read more

Writing - BFA (1999)

Yasuko Thanh

Novelist, short story writer, punk musician

Yasuko's stories have been published in numerous literary magazines, including Prairie FireDescantFireweedThe Fiddlehead and PRISM international. Her nonfiction has appeared in publications as diverse as SPEAKVancouver ReviewIsland Parent Magazine and subTerrain. She was nominated for the Hudson Prize, the Millennium Prize, and the David Adams Richard Prize. She won the 2016 Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for her novel Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains. She also screams in the punk band 12 Gauge Facial. Read more

Writing - BA (2011) and MFA (2013)

Jennifer Kingsley

Writer, broadcaster, wilderness guide

Jennifer's background combines science and the arts. She founded Meet the North and is a field correspondent for Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic. She is also a radio producer with over a decade of remote field experience as a guide and naturalist. She has spent the last 10 years working in the Rockies, BC's temperate rainforest and the Arctic as a conservationist, naturalist and wilderness guide. Her latest project, Paddlenorth, tells the riveting story of her 54-day paddling adventure in the arctic wilderness, as she and her five companions battle raging winds, impenetrable sea ice and treacherous rapids. Read more

Writing - MFA (2010)

Eden Robinson

Novelist, short story writer

Eden is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations whose first story collection, Traplines, was critically acclaimed, being named a New York Times Editor's Choice, and won England's Winifred Holtby Prize for the best regional work by a Commonwealth writer. Her novel Monkey Beach was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award and won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her novel Son of a Trickster has also been shortlisted for the Giller. Read more

Writing - BFA (1992)

Philip Kevin Paul

Poet, advocate for Indigenous language preservation

Philip Kevin is a member of the WSÁNEĆ Nation, and he's worked with UVic's linguistics department to ensure the preservation of the SENĆOŦEN language. His work has been published in BC Studies, Literary Review of Canada, Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets and An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English. His second book of poetry, Little Hunger, was shortlisted for a 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award. Read more

Writing - MFA (2011)

Connor Gaston

Filmmaker, screenwriter

Connor is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened at top festivals around the world, including TIFF. In 2015, he completed his first feature film, The Devout, which premiered at Busan International Film Festival, earned seven Leo Awards, including Best Picture, and won the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award at Vancouver International Film Festival. Connor is a recent graduate of Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre, as well as a member of the 2017 TIFF Talent Lab.

Writing - BA (2012) and MFA (2014)

Mallory Tater

Poet, writing teacher

Mallory is a writer from the traditional, unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg Nation (Ottawa). Her first book of poetry This Will Be Good is forthcoming with BookThug Press in 2018. Her poetry and fiction have been published in literary magazines across Canada, and she was the recipient of CV2’s 2016 Young Buck Poetry Prize. She is currently the publisher of Rahila's Ghost Press, a Vancouver-based poetry chapbook press. Read more

Writing - BA (2014)

Mark Leiren-Young

Journalist, memoirist, playwright, screenwriter, writing teacher

Mark is the author of the comic memoir Never Shoot a Stampede Queen—A Rookie Reporter in the Cariboo, which won the 2009 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, has been made into a stage play and is currently being adapted for film. His latest book about Moby Doll, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, is being released by Greystone in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation. As a journalist, Mark has written for TIMEMaclean’'The Hollywood Reporter and most of Canada's major daily newspapers. Read more

Writing & theatre - BFA (1985)