Word Vancouver and the Magazine Association of BC will again be presenting a panel on the perfect pitch at this year’s Word Vancouver, WV/26, on Saturday, September 19, 2026 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at UBC Robson Square.
Whether you’re brand new or an established writer or journalist, this panel discussion will help you refine how you’re pitching and learn how to make your submission stand out in the overflowing slush pile. Join renowned editors, journalists, and writers for their best tips and tricks on pitching and submitting your work — including general interest, news, literary, and niche publications.
One lucky attendee will win a one-hour consultation with the panelist of their choice!
Location: Sunroom/Gallery, UBC Robson Square
Moderator: Jessica Key, subTerrain
Panelists: andrea bennett, The Tyee | Carleigh Baker, author and teacher | Harrison Mooney, author and journalist
About the Moderator
Jessica is a queer, disabled arts administrator, and has been working at subTerrain for more than nine years, currently as the Managing Editor. She also works at Anvil Press, and 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, where she was the managing editor of the school’s literary magazine Portal. She served as the chair/president of the board of directors for the Magazine Association of BC for many years.
About the Panelists
andrea bennett is a National Magazine Award-winning writer and a senior editor at The Tyee. They are the author of six books, including Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, which won a Taste Canada Gold Award, and, with David Beers, the co-editor of the bestselling anthology Points of Interest.
Carleigh Baker is an author and teacher of Red River Métis and European descent. Her debut story collection, Bad Endings, won the City of Vancouver Book Award and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Indigenous Voices Award for fiction. Her stories and essays have been translated into several languages and anthologized in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Her new collection, Last Woman, was a finalist for the 2025 Jim Deva Prize for writing that provokes. She was a 2020 Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, where she teaches autobiographical fiction at The Writer’s Studio.
Harrison Mooney is an award-winning author and journalist from the Pacific Northwest. His best-selling memoir, Invisible Boy, was the winner of the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for nonfiction and his follow-up full-length is due from Greystone Books in 2026. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, the National Post, The Guardian, Maclean’s and The Tyee. He lives in East Vancouver with his family.
MagsBC will again have a table set up at the festival at the outdoor rink under Robson Street.
This year celebrates the 32nd anniversary of Word Vancouver.
Info on Word Vancouver Festival 2026 can be found here.
