PitchFest 2026

Do you have the perfect idea for a magazine, and need 10 minutes of one-on-one time outside a busy schedule inbox to pitch it? Now’s your chance!

Join the PitchFest to connect with editors and magazine professionals about working with their magazines, whether that’s pitching story ideas/talking submissions, or other collaborations, marketing initiatives, or advertising opportunities. This can also be used as an opportunity to refine editorial pitches with a professional.

PitchFest takes place on Day 1, April 22, 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. during the PNW Creatives Summit.

Editors available:

Jessica Key, 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, 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.

Iain Higgins, The Malahat Review

or L’Amour Lisik

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.

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.

Zoe Blunt, 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.

Please register for the PNW Creatives Summit to access this opportunity.