—2024—
Managing Editors
Acquisitions Editor
Fiction Editors
Poetry Editors
Script Editor
Non-Fiction Editor
Copy Editors
Gustafson Feature
Graduate Feature
Book Review Editor
Art Director
Designer
Portfolio Series Coordinators
AV Editors
Ad Team
Subscriptions Team
Social Media Team
Launch Coordinators
Web Designer
Publisher
Sam Bollinger, Tianna Vertigan
Beatrix Taylor
Kiera Bogle, Katie Carroll, Lee Groen, Sophia Wasylinko
Ali Dillon-Cardinal, Laurent Lemay, Fran Pacchiano, Tara Wohlieben
Casey Tweedy
Megan Zolorycki, Paige Vandop
Sam Bollinger, Tianna Vertigan, Katie Carroll, Laurent Lemay
Fran Pacchiano, Tara Wohlieben
Maggie Stvns, Sophia Wasylinko, Megan Zolorycki
Maggie Stvns
Jenaya Shaw
Celia Brand
Lee Groen, Gabrielle Josefsson, Paige Vandop
Katie Carroll, Casey Tweedy, Fran Pacchiano
Lee Groen, Nittu Prasai
Kiera Bogle, Ali Dillon-Cardinal, Tara Wohlieben
Beatrix Taylor, Sophia Wasylinko
Casey Tweedy, Jenaya Shaw
Katie Carroll
Joy Gugeler
Managing Editors
Sam Bollinger
Sam is a fourth-year Creative Writing and English student, and a co-Managing Editor for Portal 2024. She was a Poetry Editor and Copy Editor for Portal 2023 and is currently the Copy Editor for The Navigator and an editor at Strong Nations Publishing. Her writing has appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, The Malahat Review, Canthius, Portal 2023, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Rhonda Bailey Publishing Award and a scholarship from the BC Arts Council.
Tianna Vertigan
Tianna is a queer creator in her final year as a Creative Writing major and Studies in Women and Gender minor. She became co-Managing Editor for Portal 2024 after working on Portal 2023 as a Poetry Editor and Web Designer. Her review of Modern Fables and poem “Shell Shocked” appeared in Portal 2023, where she also co-interviewed Canadian poet M. NourbeSe Philip. Since then, she has interned with Caitlin Press, returned to The Navigator as Associate Editor, and joined Sad Girl Review as Guest Editor for Issue 10: Gamer Girl.
Beatrix Taylor
Acquisitions Editor
Beatrix has taken classes in VIU’s Visual Arts, English, and Creative Writing departments. She is Acquisitions Editor and on the Social Media Team for Portal 2024. In the summer of 2023, she interned at Caitlin Press. She was also a Non-fiction Editor and Launch Coordinator for Portal 2023.
Jenaya Shaw
Art Director
Jenaya is a third-year Creative Writing and Psychology student. She is the Art Director and a member of the Marketing team for Portal 2024. She has also been an Editor at The Navigator for the last two years.
Editors
Kiera Bogle
Kiera is a second-year Bachelor of Education student at VIU, taking Creative Writing electives after being awarded a $2,000 entrance scholarship to the University of Victoria Creative Writing Program. She was awarded “Best Short Story of the Month” in Victoria in 2020 and hopes to live up to that promise with a debut collection of short stories in progress. She is a Fiction Editor and is on the Subscriptions and Merch team for Portal 2024.
Katie Carroll
Katie is a fourth-year BA student pursuing an Honours Degree in English. She has been awarded both the Kathryn Barnwell BA Scholarship and the VIUFA Degree Entrance Scholarship. Her essay “‘Out-of-Field’: Cinematography of the Unseen in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and In the Mood for Love” won the English annual essay contest (2nd-year category) and will be published on VIU Space. She is a Fiction Editor, AV Editor, and Web Designer for Portal 2024.
Ali Dillon-Cardinal
Ali is a third-year Creative Writing student with a focus on Theatre and Psychology at VIU. She has completed two full-length screenplays, a sitcom pilot episode, and a one-act play produced by the Theatre department’s annual One-Act Festival in 2023. She has twice won the Polar Expressions Writing contest with a short story and poem. She self-published a collection of poetry entitled This and That and a collection of short stories, Riding a Bike into the Ocean. She is a Poetry Editor and is on the Subscriptions and Merch team for Portal 2024.
Lee Groen
Lee is a third-year Creative Writing major. In 2020, he was awarded the Pat Bevan Scholarship for fiction. His work “The Lucky Ones” appeared in the 2021 issue of Portal. He is a Fiction Editor for Portal 2024 as well as a member of the Advertising team.
Laurent Lemay
Laurent is a third-year Creative Writing student. He is a queer writer, editor, and designer. He earned a Writing and Publishing Diploma from Okanagan College and was the Managing Editor for Ryga’s 2023 issue. He is a Poetry Editor and a member of the Marketing team for the Portal 2024 issue.
Fran Pacchiano
Fran is a queer author and fourth-year Creative Writing major. She is a Poetry Editor and AV Editor for Portal 2024 and is the Artistic Director of GOOEY Magazine. Her pieces, “Purple,” “Superstition FAQ,” and “Sasquatch Sightings,” appear in the first issue of GOOEY published in 2023. She is a recipient of the Meadowlarks Award for fiction.
Maggie Stvns
Maggie is a transexual poet, musician, and editor. Attending VIU since 2015, she is currently an open mic host at The Vault and the Research Associate for the Nanaimo Arts Council. In 2023, she received VIU’s Kevin Roberts Poetry Award. She is a Feature Editor for Portal 2024.
Casey Tweedy
Casey works as a Licensed Practical Nurse in the Ambulatory Clinic at the Victoria Health Unit and is a fourth-year Creative Writing student. She is the Script Editor for Portal 2024. Her IMDB credits include Misplaced Trust and The Clean-up. She focuses on screenplays and hopes to produce for film or TV.
Paige Vandop
Paige is a second-year Creative Writing and Anthropology student at VIU. She has read from her self-published dystopian sci-fi YA novel Masked Rebellion at a department campus event and is at work on a trilogy. She works for students as a freelance editor and is a Nonfiction Editor and the Portfolio Series Coordinator for Portal 2024.
Sophia Wasylinko
Sophia is a fifth-year Creative Writing student. She previously worked on Portal 2022 as a Poetry Editor and a Gustafson Feature writer. Her review of Dawn Dumont’s The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour appeared in that issue. For Portal 2024, she is a Fiction Editor and Feature Editor. She writes for The Navigator, co-hosts WorldVIU Radio, and volunteers as a Peer Helper with International Education. She has interned with the Canadian Letters and Images Project and Seoulbox. In 2023, she received the Meadowlarks Award for fiction.
Tara Wohlleben
Tara is a third-year Creative Witing major and English minor. They enjoy writing genre fiction and experimenting in poetry. They are a Poetry Editor and Feature Editor for Portal 2024 and will be co-interviewing Gustafson Distinguished Poet Karen Solie for this issue.
Megan Zolorycki
Megan Zolorycki is a fourth-year Creative Writing and Business student. She is the Managing Editor at The Navigator and an Editorial Intern for Vancouver Magazine and Western Living. She was the recipient of the Barry Broadfoot Award in 2022 and 2023 and has had two op-eds published in The Province. She is a Non-fiction Editor and Feature Editor for Portal 2024.
Coordinators
Gabrielle Josefsson
Gabrielle is an emerging horror, fantasy, and sci-fi writer whose work has previously appeared in The Nosleep podcast and GOOEY magazine. She’s a fourth-year Creative Writing and Journalism student and the Portfolio Coordinator for Portal 2023. She is excited to take on Nanowrimo for the first time this November.
Nittu Prasai
Nittu was born and raised in Taplejung in the Himalayas of Nepal. She is a fourth-year Creative Writing major. Her non-fiction piece “What Kind of Mother” is part of a memoir in progress and was excerpted in Portal 2022. She was a Non-fiction Editor for Portal 2023 and her feature “The Roof of the World” and review of All of Us in Our Own Lives appeared in that issue. She is the Portfolio Spotlight Coordinator and on the Advertising team for Portal 2024.
Designer
Celia Brand
Celia Brand is a third-year Graphic Design student with a background in Criminology. She currently holds the role of Art Director at The Navigator Student Press and serves as the Graphic Designer for Portal 2024. Celia was awarded for her 2023 Crimestoppers Campaign and recognized for the Top Artist Award in two categories by the B.C. Royal Canadian Legion.