Literary CV

Want to know if I’m the bee’s knees? Check out my CV:

Publications

Poem “The Essential Involvement of the Harpist” published in Arc (107), Summer 2025
Short Story “Bubble Bath and the Ecstasy of Diminishing” published in The Malahat Review (230), Spring 2025
Hybrid Piece “Heart Rate Analysis for ME/CFS” published in Grain Magazine (52.3), Spring 2025
Poem “Five Years After Joe Overdosed on Fentanyl” published in Biblioasis’s anthology Best Canadian Poetry 2025, November 2024
Poems “The End Record” and “After the Funeral” published in Arc (103), Spring 2024.
Poem “Yield” published in Canthius (13), March 2024
Poems “He Gave Me Olive Oil”, “Sayfish”, and “Diving Birds” published in The Humber Literary Review (11.2), March 2024
Poem “Choir Tour” published in Grain Magazine (51.2), January 2024
Poem “The Door” published on PEN Canada’s website, August 2023
Poems “Five Years After Joe Overdosed on Fentanyl” and “A Mnemonic for Desire” published in The Malahat Review (221), January 2023
Poem “Lucky Ones” published in Rattle (75), March 2022
Poem “Prairie Poem” published in League of Canadian Poets chapbook You Are a Flower Growing off the Side of a Cliff, June 2021

Awards

Finalist for The Writers’ Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition, 2025
Finalist for Arc’s Poem of the Year Contest, 2025
Winner of The Malahat Review’s Open Season Award for Fiction, 2025
Second Place Winner of Grain Magazine’s Hybrid Grain Contest for Experimental Writing, 2024
Finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize, November 2024
Longlisted twice for the CBC Poetry Prize, November 2024
SSHRC Grant Recipient, September 2024
Shortlisted for The New Quarterly’s 2024 Creative Nonfiction Contest
Finalist for PEN Canada’s New Voices Award, 2023
Shortlisted for CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize, 2023
Finalist for PEN Canada’s New Voices Award, 2022
Awarded Honourable Mention for Toronto Arts & Letters Club Foundation Award, 2022
Shortlisted for The Fiddlehead’s 2020 Poetry Contest
Shortlisted for Event’s 2019 Creative Nonfiction Contest
Longlisted for Prism International’s 2013 Creative Nonfiction Contest

Recent Readings

Best Canadian Poetry 2025 and 2026 Celebration at Upstart and Crow, Vancouver, December 11, 2025
National Poetry Month Reading with The Malahat Review at Planet Earth Poetry, Victoria, April 11, 2025
Planet Earth Poetry, Victoria, February 11, 2025
Opening Reader at Launch of In the Warm Shallows of What Remains, Victoria, July 25, 2024
UBC MFA Residency Reading, Vancouver, July 10, 2024
Emerging Writers Reading Series, Online, January 8, 2024
Planet Earth Poetry, Victoria, September 29, 2023
Wild Prose Reading Series, Victoria, September 25, 2023
UBC MFA Residency Reading, Vancouver, July 11, 2023
Wild Prose Reading Series, Victoria, May 25, 2023
Planet Earth Poetry, Victoria, May 27, 2022

Facilitation and Teaching

Recent Training and Workshops

“Poetry through Nature” workshop with Ariel Gordon, January 2024
“Songs for a Changing World: Writing Our Hope and Grief About Place” with Dr. Jenna Butler, July 2023
“The Thinking Poem” course with Yvonne Blomer, April 2023
League of Canadian Poets Mentorship with Alvy Carragher, 2022-2023
Confessional Poetry Retreat with Susan Olding, June 2022
Poetry Techniques with Yvonne Blomer, November 2019
Poetry and Fiction Workshop with Julie Paul, September 2019

Employment

Elementary Teacher-Librarian
2017 – present
Greater Victoria School District #61

Elementary and Middle School Teacher
2005 – 2017
Greater Victoria School District #61

Education

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Candidate
University of British Columbia
In Progress

Diploma in Teacher-Librarianship
With Distinction
University of British Columbia
2020

Bachelor of Education
With Distinction
University of Victoria
2005

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing
With Distinction
University of Victoria
2003

Catherine St. Denis, Writer