Meet some of CapU’s authors on the rise
Jude DeVille (he/him) // Contributor
Tasha Jones (she/her) // Illustrator
Students are very familiar with the pain that is an empty Google Doc. Constant writing, rewriting, deleting and the flashing cursor waiting expectantly. Writing is a lot of things, but for most, it isn’t linear. So what goes into writing a complete literary work?
For Jenna Luscombe, writing has always been a deep-rooted passion. “I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was very young… I knew from the very beginning. I feel like I always excelled with writing and reading, whereas I struggled in things like math and science,” Luscombe said.
For her, one of the most satisfying parts of writing is in the opportunity to explore world-building. Luscombe explained, “I love being able to create different worlds and experience different worlds, and it’s almost a form of entertainment for me to be able to come up with.”
Last year Luscombe self-published her first novel, Electric Love, a romantic romp about a small-town girl and pop-punk singer. She credits encouraging and like-minded students and professors at CapU, alongside her opportunities working with the school’s literary zine The Liar with giving her the confidence to navigate the arena of publishing. “It gave me a lot of experience in the publishing industry and also being able to work on my creative writing in a workshop environment [was very helpful].”
EA Douglas is a Vancouver-based writer pursuing an associate degree in Creative Writing at CapU. Alongside that, she has had her work published in multiple magazines, including Sad Magazine, and ReIssue and has self-published multiple zines.
Douglas talked about how her writing is often birthed from intimate reflection and later expanded into something deeper. Douglas’ writing originates from her diary and reflective writing, and then evolves from there into a story or essay with a greater meaning.
“I feel like with creative nonfiction, the impetus is generally, a life moment that I feel like I can spread to a wider audience,” she said.
For Douglas, being at CapU has definitely impacted her writing, but she sees the experience as more multi-dimensional. “It’s been good and it’s been bad, I feel grateful for my time here, and I’m grateful for the Creative Writing faculty who, for the most part, are amazing,” she said.
However, there have also been challenges, from butting heads with instructors, to having to fight for a narrative voice in an educational environment. “Having an instructor have an opinion of something that you’re working on, [in which] you feel misrepresented can be brutal,” Douglas explained.
Still, she says that participating in the Creative Writing program directly correlated to not only the completion of her first novel, but also gave Douglas the time and space to revise that manuscript and prepare it to begin querying literary agents.
Douglas says that for all the ups and downs, her studies have moved her forward on her writing journey. “The best thing that has come out of Cap[U] is that I did an independent study with Andrea Actis of the Creative writing department on my novel… I’m sure other schools have independent studies, but the ease of getting that felt really, what’s the word? Serendipitous.”
