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Articles, Book Reviews, Home Page, Non-Fiction

Review: Non-Fiction by Carol Shaben and Jay Ruzesky

Event Mags / July 13, 2014

This non-fiction review first appeared in EVENT 42/3. Carol Shaben, Into the Abyss: How a Deadly Plane Crash Changed the […]

Current Issue: 55/2 (Fall 2026)

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New on the EVENT Blog 🌸 Read an excerpt of "Becaus

New on the EVENT Blog 🌸 Read an excerpt of "Because" by Sarah Wolfson

SARAH WOLFSON is the author of A Common Name for Everything (Green Writers Press, 2019), which won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Originally from Vermont, she is a longtime resident of Montreal, where she teaches at McGill University.

Click the link in our bio to read the full excerpt, then find two complete poems in EVENT 55/1.

📚️ What can a creative non-fiction essay be? It

📚️ What can a creative non-fiction essay be?

It may be true, but it can still borrow from the tools of fiction.

There's less than a month to submit to our 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest. Every entry include a one-year subscription to EVENT, with a discounted rate for students, now is great time to send us your work.

Find the contest guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

There is one month left to submit to our 2026 Non-

There is one month left to submit to our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest! Don't forget to submit your work by October 15th.

Did you know, we offer deeply discounted contest entry fees and one-year subscriptions to all post-secondary students! Are you are completing a creative writing MFA or an undergraduate student trying your hand at submitting for the first time? Submit to EVENT’s annual CNF contest for just $19.95. That’s a full $15 off our standard contest entry fee and includes a one-year subscription to EVENT.

Find the contest details and submit through the link in our bio.

Our friends at Room need your support! Canada's o

Our friends at Room need your support!

Canada's oldest feminist literary magazine is urgently fundraising to keep its doors open. For over 50 years, Room has made space for writers and artists of marginalized genders, with a particular focus on BIPOC, queer, and disabled voices.

At EVENT, we know how much work goes into keeping an independent literary magazine running, and how much these spaces mean to the writers and readers who find community through them.

Room's fundraiser will help pay outstanding fees and reduce its deficit so the team can work toward a sustainable future. If you're able, please consider supporting the fundraiser or sharing to help spread the word.

Find more information about the fundraiser @roommagazine

What can a creative non-fiction essay be? Sometim

What can a creative non-fiction essay be?

Sometimes, one image, object, question, or metaphor can hold the whole piece together. A strong through line can connect scenes that seem unrelated at first and give the essay another layer of meaning that reaches beyond strictly personal experience for some universal or deeper meaning. Be a lens toward something bigger.

The key is restraint: let the metaphor do some work without asking trying to force it to do everything.

More creative non-fiction tips are on the way as we count down to EVENT's 2026 Non-Fiction Contest deadline on October 15. Find the full guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

We will be exhibiting at Word Vancouver on Septemb

We will be exhibiting at Word Vancouver on September 19!

Stop by to chat with our team, learn more about the magazine, and pick up a copy of EVENT in person.

We're looking forward to spending the day with Vancouver's literary community. Come say hello if you're there!

What can a creative non-fiction essay be? It can

What can a creative non-fiction essay be?

It can jump through time, work in fragments, or braid together different formats. If you are struggling to make sense of a story sometimes changing the shape can help you figure out what the story is really about.

Our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15, with $3,000 in total prizes and publication in EVENT for all three winners. Find the full guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

More writing tips are on the way. In the meantime, share your favourite tip or writing exercise.

Spotted EVENT in the wild, and in very good compan

Spotted EVENT in the wild, and in very good company. 📚️

This photo was taken at Indigo, Robson Street in Vancouver, where you can find EVENT alongside other literary magazines.

Get a copy at select newsstands and Chapters Indigo locations, or order the latest issue directly from our website.

Thinking about submitting to our 2026 Non-Fiction

Thinking about submitting to our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest? Our current issue, EVENT 55/1, includes the three winning essays from last year's contest, as well as Vinh Nguyen's judges essay.

Issues of EVENT are available in print and digital editions. Sign up for a digital subscription to download the current issue right away and receive the rest of the year in your inbox! Only $18.95 for 1 year of the best new poetry and prose, Subscribe through the link in bio.

You may have seen my face pop up on EVENT's feed l

You may have seen my face pop up on EVENT's feed lately, so I thought I should introduce myself!

I'm Olivia MacDonald, EVENT's Magazine Intern this summer. I'm currently completing a Master of Publishing at Simon Fraser University and am also co-editor-in-chief of Bitter Magazine.

As EVENT's intern, I get to work on a little bit of everything that goes into putting a literary magazine together, from social media and newsletters, to interviews and editorial meetings!

If there's anything you've ever wondered about how EVENT is made or what happens behind the scenes, I'd love to share more!

New on the EVENT Blog 🌱 Read a preview of "The Kri

New on the EVENT Blog 🌱 Read a preview of "The Krishna of Kelowna" by Vivek Sharma

VIVEK SHARMA is a poet from the foothills of the Himalayas who dwells in the myths of the Mahabharata and whose peripatetic lines chronicle love, loneliness, elephant gods as well as the mechanics of flipping burgers at many McDonald’s stores across Canada.

Click the link in our bio to read the full excerpt from the poem, then find two complete poems in EVENT 55/1.

Have a writing prompt or tip that always gets you

Have a writing prompt or tip that always gets you unstuck? Share your favourite in the comments so other writers can give it a try.

And if your draft turns into something you want to send out, EVENT’s 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15, with $3,000 in total prizes and publication in EVENT for all three winners.

Find the full contest guidelines through the link in our bio.

#CreativeNonfiction #CreativeWriting #WritingPrompt #EVENTmagazine #WritingContest

We are excited to announce Minelle Mahtani as the

We are excited to announce Minelle Mahtani as the judge for EVENT’s 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest!

Minelle Mahtani is a Muslim Iranian/Indian/Canadian writer, former TV producer and radio host. She is Chair of Canadian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her memoir, May It Have a Happy Ending has been called a “magnificent and stunning debut.” It won the Hubert Evans Prize for best non-fiction of the year. She has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards and won a gold medal for best personal essay in the Digital Publishing Awards. Mahtani is also the author of the book Mixed Race Amnesia: Resisting the Romanticization of Multiraciality. Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Geist, Maisonneuve and Southeast Review. She is currently working on a book about erosion with UBC Press.

EVENT's 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15, 2026, with $3,000 in total prizes and publication in EVENT for all three winners. Your entry fee also includes a one-year subscription or renewal. Find the full submission guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

Do you have an essay you believe in? Take the leap

Do you have an essay you believe in? Take the leap and send it our way.
These words of encouragement come from 2025 Non-Fiction Contest judge Vinh Nguyen's essay in EVENT 55/1.

Vinh Nguyen is the author of the speculative memoir The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse (HarperCollins, 2025), a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-fiction, the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and the Toronto Book Award. He is also a nonfiction editor at The New Quarterly.

EVENT's 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is now open, with $3,000 in total prizes and publication in EVENT for all three winners. Your entry fee also includes a one-year subscription or renewal. Enter by October 15, 2026. Find the full submission guidelines through the link in our bio.

What are our 2025 Creative Non-Fiction Contest win

What are our 2025 Creative Non-Fiction Contest winning essays about? Swipe through to find the essay that speaks to you!

Our three winning essays were selected by contest judge Vinh Nguyen, author of The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse, shortlisted for the 2025 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Read "Metaphors We Die By" by Jennifer Manuel, "Waiting for the Bus: A Memoir of Dementia" by Meredith Quartermain, and "The Shrine" by Hannah Amaris Roh, along with Vinh Nguyen's judge's essay, in EVENT 55/1, available through the link in our bio.

CANADIAN WRITERS: Have you been waiting for a sign

CANADIAN WRITERS: Have you been waiting for a sign to submit your work? This is it!

EVENT is currently seeking fiction and poetry submissions from Canadian citizens and residents, both emerging and established.

We recommend submitting early, as we may close submissions early if we reach our cap. Find the full guidelines and submission link in our bio.

#CanadianWriters #EVENTmagazine #LiteraryMagazine #CanLit #LitMag

PLEASE BE ADVISED: Canadian Fiction (August 2026)

PLEASE BE ADVISED: Canadian Fiction (August 2026) has reached its submission cap and is now closed. We will open again to fiction submissions on December 1.

Have you been dreaming of seeing your work in the pages of EVENT?

We are currently accepting fiction and poetry submissions from Canadian citizens and residents.

We encourage you to submit early, as spaces are limited. Read our full guidelines and find the link to submit in our bio.

#CanadianWriters #EVENTmagazine #LiteraryMagazine #CanLit #litmag

K. A. POLZIN’s stories have appeared in Subtropics

K. A. POLZIN’s stories have appeared in Subtropics, swamp pink, Gulf Coast,
Wigleaf and elsewhere, and have been anthologized in Best Small Fictions 2023, the Fractured Lit Anthology 3 (2024), and chosen for the 2025 Wigleaf Top 50. Polzin was shortlisted for the PRISM international Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction.

Find K. A. Polzin’s story "Guidelines" in EVENT 55/1.

New on the EVENT Blog ⛵️ Read a preview of "Underc

New on the EVENT Blog ⛵️ Read a preview of "Undercover" by Sue Murtagh

SUE MURTAGH’s debut collection, We’re Not Rich (Nimbus Publishing/Vagrant Press, 2024), won the 2025 Atlantic Book Awards Readers’ Choice Award. Sue’s work has appeared in The Walrus, The New Quarterly, Grain, carte blanche, The Humber Literary Review, Yolk Literary and The Nashwaak Review.

Click the link in our bio to read an excerpt from the story, then find the complete story in EVENT 55/1.

Take a peek inside our summer issue ⛱️ Want to g

Take a peek inside our summer issue ⛱️

Want to get your hands on the best new writing? Discover fiction, poetry, and more from emerging and established authors in EVENT 55/1. Get your copy through the link in our bio.

Want to see your work in print? Prose and poetry submissions reopen in August for Canadian authors. We can’t wait to read your work.

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