Two South Delta writers were among the 36 students featured in The Writer's Studio annual anthology, emerge 15, launched last month at SFU's Harbour Centre campus.
Heather Marshall and Valerie White contributed to the anthology from Simon Fraser University's prestigious creative writing program.
White, writing in emerge 15 as Valerie Chalker Whitfield, has lived on a float home in Canoe Pass Village for 26 years. She has previously published works on travel and medicine, but this is her first foray into creative non-fiction.
Her contribution to emerge 15 is an excerpt from a three-generation family saga spanning three continents, a project whose grandeur has been described as "overwhelming."
But, as White says, "you never really know what something is about until you do it!" Marshall is currently working on a creative nonfiction book, a series of linked short stories and a novel.
"I grew up in Ladner, when it was on the verge of suburbia, in an area we called Chung Chuck Heights," says Marshall. "The Heights will always be with me, in my emotions, thoughts and decisions. It is always at my core."
emerge 15 is guestedited by author and poet Matt Rader, who describes the content as "the re-inhabited lives of our neighbours - funny, wicked, queer, unpredictable, vatic, curious, troubled, warm." Rader invites readers into the anthology: "They have thrown open the doors for you to have your own look around."
emerge 15 includes poetry, fiction and nonfiction contributions from students, including North Delta's Alex Bezeredi.
The Writer's Studio is a one-year part-time creative writing program with an emphasis on learning in community.
