Pitch Fest
April 22 at 1:30pm
Coordinated by Jessica Key of subTerrain, with support from the Magazine Association of BC, Pitch Fest is your chance to connect with BC editors and magazine professionals about working with their magazines.
Pitching a story? An idea? A photo essay?
Want to discuss other collaborations like marketing initiatives or advertising opportunities? Or simply looking to refine your editorial pitch with a professional?
Bring your ideas for a 15-minute one-on-one pitch session with seasoned magazine editors and publishers, including the talented folks from subTerrain, Watershed Sentinel, The Malahat Review, Here Magazine, and FOLKLIFE Magazine.
Who you will get to pitch to:
Jessica Key of subTerrain
Jessica Key is a queer, disabled arts administrator living in East Vancouver, and subTerrain’s managing editor. In addition to her work at subTerrain, she is a Publishing Associate with Anvil Press. She has previously worked with Iceland Writers Retreat, the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, and assisted many arts organizations with editorial, marketing, and writing. She has a Masters of Publishing from Simon Fraser University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Vancouver Island University.
Alina Cerminara of FOLKLIFE
Alina Cerminara is the founder and publisher of FOLKLIFE Magazine, a semi-annual publication devoted to living close to the earth, with intention, and creativity—with the simple goal of slowing the folk down.
She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and Creative Writing and a master’s degree in Publishing, and has spent the past seven years working in editorial and production at New Society Publishers. Before founding FOLKLIFE, she worked as a festival planner, where she came to appreciate how deeply stories, gatherings, and shared cultural moments shape the communities we live in.
Her work often explores craftsmanship, culture, and the quieter rhythms that make up a meaningful life. These days she lives with her young daughter and dog on the salty shores of Canada’s west coast, where the tide, the forest, and the turning seasons quietly shape the pages of FOLKLIFE.
L’Amour Lisik of The Malahat Review
L’Amour (she/they), Managing Editor of The Malahat Review, lives and works on the unceded traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples (Victoria, BC). They also worked for many years as an Associate Prose Editor at Plenitude Magazine. A queer writer of Chinese Mauritian and Scottish settler descent, she holds a BFA in Writing from the University of Victoria. Their creative nonfiction and comics explore themes of identity, belonging, family, religion, and queerness.
Iain Higgins of The Malahat Review
Iain Higgins is a writer, translator, critic, teacher, and current Editor of The Malahat Review. His books include Then Again (poems), The Invention of Poetry (a translation of Polish poet Adam Czerniawski’s selected poems), The Book of John Mandeville (a translation of a fictional medieval travel book about the East), and Writing East: The “Travels” of Sir John Mandeville (an academic study). His poems have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008 and Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry, and his creative nonfiction has appeared in Maisonneuve. He is currently finishing a new book of poems, translating a collection of Polish poems and a French novella, and neglecting a novel. He teaches in both the English Department and the Medieval Studies Program at UVic.
Elena Fletcher of Here Magazine
Elena Fletcher (she/her) is an editor and an award-winning copywriter with a global career across advertising, brand, and editorial work. She is always up for a good story, especially one that is still figuring itself out. Currently the editorial lead at a content marketing agency and an editor-on-call for the National Film Board of Canada, she is representing Here Magazine at PitchFest.
Her editorial interests lean towards cultural and community-driven storytelling with a focus on underrepresented perspectives. Elena is open to pitches, exploratory conversations, and connecting with anyone who has ideas they want to shape, test, or talk through.
Zoe Blunt of Watershed Sentinel
Watershed Sentinel editor Zoe Blunt is a lifelong environmentalist, women’s rights campaigner, and Indigenous ally. Her writing has appeared in Canadian Dimension, Focus Magazine, Monday Magazine, Counterpunch, Adbusters, Dominion, and People’s Voice.