MACRW Students
Sabryna Ruggles Ekstein
MA CRW Candidate
Email: sabryna.ekstein@mail.utoronto.ca
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Creative Writing, Museum Studies, Food & Beverage Studies
Sabryna R. Ekstein (she/her) is currently working on her MA in Creative Writing, holding a graduate degree in Museum Studies. Her research often centers around intimacy and how people crave it – whether through relations, friendships, or everyday moments. She is also interested in Food and Beverage Studies, specifically through the craft beer and hospitality industry.
List of Publications:
- Content Writer, “It’s hard to quit, both the money and the socializing,” ladySTUDIOS, 2020 https://www.lady-studios.com/the-collective/interview-with-hospitality-worker-2-sabryna-ekstein?rq=sabryna
- Content Writer, “There’s nothing like a stressful shift to bring people together, ladySTUDIOS, 2020 https://www.lady-studios.com/the-collective/an-interview-with-a-hospitality-worker-in-the-time-of-covid-19-sabryna-ekstein?rq=sabryna
- Content Writer, “Thoughts After Getting Off Your Flight,” Feels Zine, 2020
- Content Writer, “Love Me, Love My Romance Novels,” Sophomore Mag, 2019 http://www.sophomoremag.com/love-me-love-my-romance-novels
- Director/Writer of the play “Whimsical Grand,” George Ignatieff Theatre, 15 Devonshire Place, Toronto, Ontario, March 2018
- Book Reviewer, The Salterrae, Trinity College “Sweet Senses: A Review of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler,” October 2017, https://issuu.com/salterrae/docs/issue_1_v2/24 “Your Non-Syllabus Reading List,” December 2017, https://issuu.com/salterrae/docs/issue_2/22 “In the Cage: A Book Worth Remembering,” April 2018, https://issuu.com/salterrae/docs/issue_4_spring/26
- Writer, “Rolling Shelter: Analyzing Mobile Refuge in Annie Correal’s “In Deepest Cold, a Subway Car Becomes the Shelter of Last Resort,”” Undergraduate Journal of American Studies, University of Toronto (2017-2018) https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/csus/files/2019/03/2018_UndergraduateJournalofAmericanStudies_DIGITAL.pdf
Antonia Facciponte
Antonia Facciponte is a poet based in Toronto. Awarded a SSHRC Canadian Graduate Scholarship for her research project “Voice Formation: Reshaping Spoken Word Poetics,” Antonia seeks to formally and thematically remodel spoken word poetics to investigate the ever-evolving human interaction with literary voice(s). Her first poetry collection, To Make a Bridge, is forthcoming in Spring 2021 with Black Moss Press.
List of Publications:
- “Comma of The Sky.” The Northern Appeal, vol. 7, 2020, p. 31.
- “Intermezzo.” ACTA Victoriana, vol. 143, no. 2, 2019, p. 24.
- “Mr. Samuel’s Funeral,” ‘Doctor’s Orders: Inspiration from “On Spring,”’ “Falling Asleep in a Tent,” “Rome,” “Baby Cardinal on the Porch,” from the “Laureate’s Pick” section, introduction by Bruce Meyer. Exile: The Literary Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, Excelsior Publishing Inc., 2018, pp. 74-9.
- “Night Shift.” The Northern Appeal, vol. 5, 2019, p. 59.
- “orange slices with olive oil and pepper.” The Trinity Review, vol. 131, no. 2, 2019, p. 24.
- “The Flower on My Nightstand.” The Northern Appeal, vol. 6, 2019, p. 21.
Tamara Frooman
MA CRW Candidate 
Email:
tamara.frooman@mail.utoronto.ca
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Creative Nonfiction, Critical Theory
My work focuses on my personal experience with mental illness and addiction as well as the legacy of mental illness transmitted intergenerationally through my family. I try to make sense of my own life by interpreting it through my heritage. I try to articulate myself through overlapping theoretical lenses with a major emphasis on queer theory. I am interested in the inevitable failure of language to account for the complexities and contradictions of the individual. I am interested in affect, in the gaps between words, their intention, and their interpretation. There is something alluring about attempting to communicate the uncommunicable.
Mina Ivosev
MA CRW Candidate 
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Literary fiction
Mina Ivosev is a student in the Master’s of Creative Writing program specializing in literary fiction. She is interested in using fiction as a platform for social justice education and will be writing a novel with this aim during her Master’s. Her work has previously been published and awarded in various competitions, most recently winning second place in Hart House’s 2020 Literary Competition for her short story “’LARA’ AS MEN, BOYS, AND GUYS.” She hopes to pursue a career in editing.
List of Publications:
- “‘LARA’ AS MEN, BOYS, AND GUYS” - 2nd-place winner of Hart House’s Literary Competition (forthcoming)
- “How” - Hart House’s Decent Exposure online magazine (2019)
- “Lizard” - 2nd-place winner of Online Writing Tips’ Short Story Competition (2019)
- “Beyond Safety” - Toronto Public Library’s Young Voices magazine (2015)
Maxwell Koyama
MA CRW Candidate
Email:
m.koyama@mail.utoronto.ca
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Fiction
Supervisor: Randy Boyagoda
Once I got lost canoeing in two bogs.
Fawn Parker
MA CRW Candidate
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Fiction
Fawn Parker is the author of Set-Point (ARP Books, 2019), Jolie Laide (Palimpsest Press, 2021), and Dumbshow (ARP Books, 2021). Her short story, "FEED MACHINE" was long-listed for the 2020 McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize.
List of Publications:
- Looking Good and Having a Good Time (Metatron, 2015)
- Weak Spot (Anstruther, 2018)
- Set-Point (ARP Books, 2019)
- Jolie-Laide (Palimpsest, forthcoming)
Anna J. Stainsby
MA CRW Candidate
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Fiction/Poetry
By day I work on a novel, by night I design shiny things for Neophyte Jewels. I'm a huge proponent of magical realism, oxford commas, and mixing metals.
List of Publications:
- Stainsby, A.J. “From Prinsengracht.” FreeFall Magazine, XXVIII, no. 1, 2019.
- Stainsby, A.J. “Gold Ambition.” STORGY MAGAZINE, 17 Dec. 2016, storgy.com/2017/01/06/fiction-gold-ambition-by-a-j-stainsby/.
- Stainsby, A.J. “Huntingtin.” The Literary Review of Canada, vol. 24, no. 2, Mar. 2016.
- Stainsby, A.J. “Julio.” The Literary Review of Canada, vol. 27, no. 1, 2019.
Website:
Mirjana Villeneuve
MA CRW Candidate 
Email:
mirjana.villeneuve@mail.utoronto.ca
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Poetry and Fiction
Mirjana Villeneuve is a writer from Ottawa, with her B.A. and B.Ed from Queen's University. She is especially interested in exploring how shared histories and myths shape the ways we understand ourselves and the world.
List of Publications:
Mirjana's work has been published online and in print, in places such as Maggie Zine, Blank Spaces, Jam and Sand, and the Lake Effect 9 Anthology (Upstart Press, 2019).
Lily Wang
MA CRW Candidate
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Fiction and Poetry
Lily Wang wrote Saturn Peach (Gordon Hill Press, 2020) and is still writing.
List of Publications:
- Everyone In Your Dream Is You (Anstruther Press, 2018)
- Saturn Peach (Gordon Hill Press, 2020)
Jordan Weir
MA CRW Candidate 
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Creative Writing
Currently working on a spiritual novel about loving, leaving, and rediscovering family. Think "ridiculous realism." My mentor says I'm revamping the 'yarn' or the 'tall-tale.' It takes place in the 50s, so I've been talking to a lot of older people about their childhoods and scavenging for Eaton's catalogues at roadside antique shops. It's been a lot of fun! I also write poetry and short fiction. Pronouns are they/them.
Isabel Yang
MA CRW Candidate 
Email:
bel.yang@mail.utoronto.ca
Area of Specialization/Research Interest(s): Poetry
Isabel Yang/Z.Y. Yang/杨振宇 (they/her) is a poet and their work explores experimental lyric form, posthumanism, critical media studies, and race and queer theories. In a previous life they worked in marketing at an independent book publisher.
List of Publications:
Isabel's poems have been published in Room, Contemporary Verse 2, This Magazine, Poetry is Dead and other literary journals across Canada.
