Latest Past Events
Portent Contest Deadline
Submissions are open for our 2024 Portent Contest! Enter your best work of fiction by October 15, 2023 to be considered for the $500 prize.
Portal 2024 Launch Party
Nanaimo Curling Club 106 Wall St, NanaimoAre you ready for the launch of Portal 2024? Our annual issue has gone to print, and we're throwing a party! The students of CREW 430/431 have worked tirelessly with authors and each other to rewire and connect past, present and future in a literary circuit, just as these worlds collide on the page both visually and textually. Like the burst of fuchsia on our cover, we are confident much will bloom from what is planted here in our collective imagination. Come and see for yourself! Please join us for readings, reception, music, and awards to help us celebrate the blooming of the new issue of Portal magazine Visit our cash bar, pick up some back issues, and enjoy our catered reception (which includes many vegetarian-friendly appetizers). The 29 literary works that make up the 33rd issue of Portal are testimony to the power of language and prove that resiliency transcends genre, time and borders. We can't wait to share them with you. Tickets support the ongoing annual publication of VIU's literary magazine, and each includes a copy of our new $12 issue, Portal 2023. Tickets are available from our masthead and at the door (capacity 120) for $20 each. All purchases are cash only. Doors open at 6:30pm on Friday, April 26. We hope to see you there!
The Portal Class Speaks at VIU’s Arts and Humanities Colloquium
Vancouver Island University 900 Fifth Street, NanaimoVIU's final Arts and Humanities Colloquium talk of the academic year will be on March 22 at 10:00am in the Malaspina Theatre. Media Studies professor Joy Gugeler and current and former Portalers will present their talk entitled "Time Travelling through the Portal: The Evolution and Issues of a National Literary Magazine," a how-to meets walk-down-memory-lane. They will share how a black-and-white photocopied and stapled chapbook for a publishing class went from this early incarnation to a 96-page, full-colour, nationally distributed literary magazine on newsstands and online. In response to the shifting publishing landscape and the ambitions of the 20 students in the class over the last 15 years, Portal has developed a monthly reading series, a national contest, an innovative online and social media presence, a spotlight on writers from other cultures, podcast and print interviews with award-winning writers, and a celebration of graduates with new books. In an age demanding authenticity, how does a print magazine respond to its evolving readership and answer the call for inclusivity, decolonization, and representation with more than just intention? How do words that transport also reflect our times as we travel through the portal of our most intimate and artistic ideas onto the page?