Literary C.V.

Gwen Higgins is a writer living in Castlegar, BC, with her husband and children.

Education

2023 – SFU Writer’s Studio online program – Fiction & Hybrid Forms workshop group with Leanne Dunic. Participated in the production team as a volunteer copyeditor for the annual anthology (emerge 23: The Writer’s Studio Anthology).
2021 – 2022 Selkirk College Creative Writing Program: CRWT 100 (Creative Writing I with Leesa Dean), CRWT 101 (Creative Writing II with Almeda Glenn Miller), CRWT 200 (Studies in Writing III – Manuscript Development), and CRWT 201 (Studies in Writing IV – Manuscript Development) with Leesa Dean.
2020 Wesleyan Creative Writing specialization, online, non-credit, through Coursera (The Craft of Plot with Brando Skyhorse, The Craft of Character with Amy Bloom, the Craft of Setting & Description with Amity Gaige, the Craft of Style with Salvator Scibona, and Capstone Project short fiction manuscript.)
2015-2018 Royal Conservatory of Music Piano Pedagogy online certificates (Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced)
2013 CMA-BC: Certified Management Accountant Strategic Leadership Program and CMA Designation; 2015 CPA-BC CPA, CMA designation (current)
2009 APEGBC Professional Engineer (resigned 2020)
2003 UBC Vancouver – B.A.Sc. Chemical Engineering, Minor in Commerce
1998 College of the Rockies: Associate of Science Degree
1997 College of the Rockies: Liberal Arts and Sciences Certificate

2023 Production team volunteer (copyeditor) for The Writer’s Studio annual anthology, emerge 23: The Writer’s Studio Anthology.
2023 Elephant Mountain Literary Festival – workshop participant: After Apocalypse: Emergence (led by Renee Harper)
2023 Workshop attendee, Mapping the Wilds of Grief with Katrina Goldsaito, Hedgebrook
2022 Author Reading (I performed two poems from my upcoming chapbook), Oxygen Arts Centre series, mentored by Susan Andrews Grace
2022 Workshop attendee, Women’s History: Narrating Our Lives by Bonnie Morris, Hedgebrook
2022 Workshop attendee, Possibilities of Form: Using Experimentation to Invigorate your Writing with Leanne Dunic, Hedgebrook
2021 Stone’s Throw Writer’s Conference, poetry workshop attendee
2021 Selkirk College Creative Writing Program Halloween Reading Night
2021 BC Writers’ Summit Online – BC Federation of Writers
2020 Started the Castlegar Writers Facebook group and hosted in-person workshops at Millennium Park; became inactive during Covid restrictions and now exists online.
2019 Hosted an online series of 4 sessions for NaNoWriMo Youth using NaNoWriMo youth resources for Girl Guides across Canada. Brought in guest speaker Cynthia Sharp with the support of the BC Federation of Writers/Jacqueline Carmichael.
2018 St. Eugene Writer’s Conference: attended Finding Your Voice with Keith Liggett.

Poetry

Plays/Podcasts

2021 “The Dove Hill Rangers Versus the Kidd Creek Zombies”, Black Bear Review podcast

Fiction

“Retirement Package“, an excerpt from a work-in-progress, published in the emerge 23 literary anthology from SFU The Writer’s Studio.

West Kootenay Regional Arts Council and Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance: 2022/2023 Arts Funding to Communities Grant, $2500 for my Poetry & Prose Hybrid Chapbook project.