Sadie is a writer of essays, reviews, and fiction and a web editor at SAD Magazine. Her work has been published by EVENT Magazine, Room Magazine, Electric Literature, Canadian Notes & Queries, The Toronto Star, Vice, Buzzfeed, The Drift, and more.

Room is Canada’s oldest feminist literary journal, and has published fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, interviews, and book reviews since 1975. Published quarterly by the West Coast Feminist Literary Magazine Society, also known as the Growing Room Collective, Room showcases writing and art by people of all marginalized genders, including cis and trans women, trans men, nonbinary and two spirit people. We believe in publishing emerging writers alongside established authors, and because of this, approximately 90% of the work we publish comes from unsolicited submissions or contest entries.
Works that originally appeared in Room have been anthologized in The Journey Prize Anthology, Best Canadian Poetry, Best Canadian Stories, and Best Canadian Essays, and have been nominated for National Magazine Awards.
The Growing Room Collective includes all staff and editorial board members of Room. We have a unique editorial model, and each issue of the magazine is edited by a different team from our editorial board. Check out our submissions page for more information.
If you would like to volunteer with Room, please complete our application form. (Note we are not always recruiting, but we do keep applications on file for when we do.) The current collective includes:
Sadie is a writer of essays, reviews, and fiction and a web editor at SAD Magazine. Her work has been published by EVENT Magazine, Room Magazine, Electric Literature, Canadian Notes & Queries, The Toronto Star, Vice, Buzzfeed, The Drift, and more.
Kailee Wakeman (she/her) is a Prairie-raised non-profit leader based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). She holds degrees in studio arts, literature, and education, and would love to collect more. Kailee is an editor and co-founder of the digital arts & literature quarterly, long con magazine. She is also a printmaker, painter, textile artist, gardener, and wants to play all the sports all the time.
Melissa Barrientos is a freelance editor, who enjoys spending her days editing manuscripts and helping self-publishing authors share their work with the world. She holds a HBA in English and Professional Writing & Communication from the University of Toronto and a certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. Melissa is the co-founder of Archetype: A Literary Journal and volunteer for Editors Canada, gritLIT, and Room. When she is not editing or reading, she is writing about life back home in Lima, Peru.
Lena Belova is a writer and artist living on unceded Coast Salish territories. They hold a BA in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University and are the former poetry editor and managing editor for pulpMAG. They have self-published two poetry chapbooks trichinella and happy to meet u. Writing across many forms and genres, their writing explores freedom and lack thereof.
Serena Lukas Bhandar is a Punjabi/Welsh/Irish transfemme writer, water witch, and workshop facilitator living as a settler on Lekwungen and WSANEC lands. Her Pushcart Prize-nominated writing has appeared in Nameless Woman: An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color and Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture, among other places. She currently splits her time between providing inclusive sexuality education to middle-schoolers, supporting survivors of sexualized violence with the Anti-Violence Project, and mentoring trans, two-spirit, and non-binary youth through the Trans Tipping Point project.
Adesina Brown is a 21 year-old, queer, non-binary author who centers QTPOC in all their work. They have been previously published in Minola Review, Rigorous Magazine, Exposition Review, and more. Where the Rain Cannot Reach is their debut novel.
Monica is from the Philippines and moved to Canada in 2008. After graduating from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila with a BFA, she worked in animation, publishing, training and graphic design. She has a business providing graphic and web design services to non-profit groups and small businesses. She is an avid runner and dabbles in photography. Check out her portfolio at monicadesigns.ca.
Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning poet of Taiwanese and Chinese Cambodian descent. The author/co-author of five poetry chapbooks, their multi-genre work has been published in Augur, The Fiddlehead, third coast magazine, and Vallum Contemporary, among others. The co-founder of Riverbed Reading Series and a member of the poetry collective VII, you can usually find them baking sourdough bread from their starter, Bubbles, or posting food pics on Instagram. Ellen’s debut collection Blood/Belies is out in Spring 2024 with Buckrider Books (Wolsak & Wynn), and they are represented by Tasneem Motala of The Rights Factory. They are currently based on the traditional, unceded, territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg. Find them online @ehjchang and at ehjchang.com.
Molly Cross-Blanchard is a white and Métis poet living on Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish land. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a BA in English from the University of Winnipeg. Her debut full-length collection of poetry, Exhibitionist, was published by Coach House Books in Spring 2021.
Karmella Cen Benedito De Barros is an inner-city Indigiqueer with Treaty 6 Mistawasis Nêhiyaw and Afro-Brazilian ancestry. They are a plant loving, community oriented support worker, artist and organizer born and raised in diaspora, as a guest on stolen & unceded Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam territories. Karmella currently works as the Indigenous Brilliance Community Engagement leader with Room Magazine and the Art Ecosystem. They also work as the CRUW Garden Coordinator at xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, and support the Lucid Arts’ Earthseed Youth Book Club. Karmella’s most recent work is featured in Activations Of Solidarity with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective 2021, and Room Magazine issue 44.1 Growing Room.
Candace Fertile has a PhD in English literature from the University of Alberta. She teaches English at Camosun College in Victoria, B.C. and writes book reviews for several Canadian publications. She joined the collective in 2004.
Ruchika Gothoskar is an editor, writer, reader, researcher, and settler, currently living and learning on the territory of the Anishinabek, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Ojibway/Chippewa peoples, in Ontario. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University, and a Master of Arts in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies from York University. Ruchika is interested in anti-carceral responses to harm, reading more stories by authors of colour, and one day living by the ocean.
Michelle Ha is a second generation Chinese Canadian artist, writer, and editor. As much as she enjoys staring at a blank canvas or page every now and then, she also has other interests that include archery, photography, writing letters to penpals, playing cosy games, and reading translated literature and “own voice” stories by marginalised writers.Much of her work in the literary and fine arts world, and in her personal life revolves around supporting and uplifting the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, along with folks of the LGBTQIA+ community. She currently works as a digital publisher for Geist Magazine and is an active editorial member for Room Magazine. Michelle graduated from the University of Victoria with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Professional Journalism and Publishing.
Kendra Heinz is a Montreal-based reader, writer, editor, and former lawyer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Carleton University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Calgary. Kendra is an editor at a children’s book publisher and spends much of her free time working one-on-one with emerging writers to edit and evaluate short stories and manuscripts. In addition to her role at Room, Kendra is a member of Editors Canada, a volunteer with The Malahat Review, and reading a new book or graphic novel every few days.
Emma Jeffrey is a writer, artist and community facilitator of Métis, Irish and Scottish descent. Born and raised in Vancouver on Coast Salish territories, Emma is Métis with Salteaux ancestry from the Campbell family of Kississing Lake, Manitoba. She holds a diploma in Arts & Entertainment Management from Capilano University and has experience in community arts facilitation across a variety of disciplines, including music, theatre, and literary arts. Informed by the lived experiences of her communities, her practice as an artist and facilitator is focused on building networks of community care within Vancouver’s art scene.
Aris Keshav is a poet and teacher living in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal) and studying English at Concordia University. Their writing has appeared in CV2, The New Quarterly, Canadian Notes & Queries, and elsewhere. Their debut chapbook TAUNTING AUGUST was published in 2022 by Ethel Zine and Micro-Press. You can find their collage poetry on Instagram at @ambiance.queer.
Micah Killjoy was born and raised on coastal Salish land. They are a writer, editor, and BFA student at the University of British Columbia. They enjoy urban exploration, daydreaming, doggo walks, and solarpunk aesthetics.
Holly Lam is a Chinese/Scottish/Irish settler living on the territories of the Lekwungen people. She studied creative writing at the University of Victoria and her fiction has been published in carte blanche, Plenitude, and Grain. Holly currently works in theatre administration and loves storytelling for its ability to create compassion, representation, and change. When not reading and writing, she listens to podcasts, absorbs moderately useless knowledge about queer celebrity news and TV shows, and cares for her many house plants.
Hope Lauterbach is a poet and writer with Zambian roots. She is currently enrolled in The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. In addition to her role at Room, Hope is the Community and Outreach Coordinator for Learn Writing Essentials, an online creative writing studio, and the host of Unbound Reading Series, a quarterly reading and conversation that highlights Black creative voices.
Annick MacAskill’s poems have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada and abroad, including Room, Plenitude, Prism, Canadian Notes & Queries, Arc, The Fiddlehead, Best Canadian Poetry, and The Stinging Fly. Her debut collection, No Meeting Without Body (Gaspereau Press, 2018), was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the Atlantic Book Awards’ J.M. Abraham Poetry Award. Her second collection is due to be published by Gaspereau in the spring of 2020. She currently lives and writes in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq.
Lexi Mellish Mingo is a multi-disciplinary artist living and creating on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam Nations. Descending from both Afro-Guyanese, English and Scottish ancestry, her work is inspired by the complexity of diasporic experiences, and the process of place making, through community collaboration and dialogue.
Nara Monteiro (they/she) is a writer, editor, and nerd born in São Paulo, Brazil and raised on Treaty 13 land in Toronto. Today Nara lives on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) lands, serving as publisher at Room Magazine and completing a Master of Publishing at Simon Fraser University. After hours, they run social media for Strange Horizons and first read for Augur Magazine. After-after hours, find them devouring books and writing letters. Keep in touch @notesfromnara on Twitter and Instagram.
Rose Morris has been a member of Room’s editorial collective since 2013. She holds a Masters degree in literature from the University of Victoria. In addition to her role at Room, Rose is a content writer for a marketing agency, a volunteer for The Malahat Review, and occasionally a poet.
Crystal Peng lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She reads for EX/POST and edits for Flat Ink. When not writing, she spends her time propagating succulents, listening to the Goldberg Variations, or in a wikipedia rabbithole about oysters.
Tara Preissl is Scottish, Austrian, Hungarian, Stó:lō, and has ancestral roots in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation. She is a member of Leq’á:mel First Nation, but was raised in an urban environment on the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, xʷməθkʷəjˀəm, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She is a writer and editor with pieces featured in SAD Mag and Understorey Magazine and is currently a member of the Indigenous Brilliance Collective. Currently, she resides in Witsuwit’en territory.
Rebecca Russell is a freelance editor, teacher, and arts administrator. She has held various positions in publishing, ESL education, and film and theatre and, apart from a year spent abroad, has lived in Toronto for the past several years. She holds a BA in English and women & gender studies from the University of Toronto.
Ivy Sarker is an Indian writer currently living in Tkaronto. She writes her burning questions into fantasy prose and reintroduces herself to her culture through food. When she’s not writing or working at the local bookstore, she spends her time fighting her ever growing pile of books and rewatching Merlin.
Ellie Sawatzky is a poet and fiction writer from Kenora, Ontario. Her debut poetry collection, None of This Belongs to Me (Nightwood Editions), a selection of which was shortlisted for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award, was released in October 2021. A past winner of CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize and runner up for the Thomas Morton Memorial Prize, her work has been published widely in literary magazines across North America. She works as an editor for FriesenPress and curates the Instagram account @impromptuprompts, a hub for prompts and literary inspiration. Ellie lives in Vancouver with her partner and a cat named Camus.
Geffen Semach, originally from Vancouver, now lives in Toronto where she works at Penguin Random House Canada. For the last few years, she was living in London, England, where she worked as a Literary Agent’s Assistant at Aitken Alexander. Geffen has also worked at Profile Books and in foreign rights at Andrew Nurnberg Associates in London. She has been an online editor, a creative copywriter at a marketing agency, as well as held an editorial assistant position with The Nabokov Online Journal. Geffen completed the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford University in 2017.
Jane Shi is a queer Chinese settler living on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her writing can be found in Poetry Is Dead, LooseLeaf Magazine, Canthius, and PRISM International, among others. She wants to live in a world where love is not a limited resource, land is not mined, hearts are not filched, and bodies are not violated. You can find her online at @pipagaopoetry.
Sylvia Symons is a poet and essayist who grew up in Lheidli T’enneh territory in North-central B.C. She currently lives with her family in Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver) and teaches ESL at a community college. Her writing appears in Best Canadian Poetry 2016, EVENT, Geist, Room, Prairie Fire, CV2, The Sustenance Anthology (Anvil Press), Thimbleberry, and Arc Poetry Magazine.
Rachel Thompson is a poet and memoirist, former Managing Editor at Room, and current editorial collective member. She is a settler-Canadian, born on Treaty 1 territory and raised on Treaty 2 territory in Manitoba. She has also lived on the traditional territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka, and the Anishinabeg peoples in Montreal, Quebec, and on the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands in Vancouver, B.C. She teaches writing courses at rachelthompson.co. Find her on Twitter: @rachelthompson and Instagram: @rachelthompsonauthor.
Shristi Uprety (she/her) is a Nepali writer from Kathmandu, living and working on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples in Vancouver BC. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, and she is the managing editor of ROOM Magazine. You can find her on Twitter @_ShristiUprety.
Délani Valin is a Cree-Métis writer living on Snuneymuxw traditional territory. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Vancouver Island University. Her poetry has been awarded The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize, subTerrain’s Lush Triumphant Award, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2018. She has read for Room’s Indigenous Brilliance series, and her work has also appeared in Exile Editions’ Those Who Make Us, Adbusters, and Soliloquies Anthology, among others.
Eleni Vlahiotis is a Vancouver-based writer, editor, and critic. She works as an editor for The Conversation Canada and is a freelance reviewer of fiction and non-fiction. She holds a Master of Journalism from UBC and is pursuing a Master in Gender Studies at Simon Fraser University. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and writing fantasy and speculative fiction that pushes the boundaries of their respective genres. Find her @elenitrena and at elenivlahiotis.com.
Natalie Wee is a queer creator whose work is deeply informed by grassroots communities. She wrote two poetry collections, Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (San Press, 2021) and Beast At Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022). Born in Singapore to Malaysian parents, Natalie is currently a settler in Tkaronto.
Isabella Wang is the author of the chapbook, On Forgetting a Language (Baseline Press 2019), and her full-length debut, Pebble Swing (Nightwood Editions, 2021). Among other recognitions, she has been shortlisted for Arc’s Poem of the Year Contest, The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Contest and Long Poem Contest, and was the youngest writer to be shortlisted twice for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay Contest. Her poetry and prose have appeared in over thirty literary journals and three anthologies. She is completing a double-major in English and World Literature at Simon Fraser University. With Vancouver Poetry House, she is a mentor and workshop coordinator for youth and high school poets across lower mainland Vancouver.
Managing Editor
Shristi Uprety
managingeditor [at] roommagazine [dot] com
submissions [at] roommagazine [dot] com
Publisher
Nara Monteiro
circulation [at] roommagazine [dot] com
publisher [at] roommagazine [dot] com
outreach [at] roommagazine [dot] com
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Natalie Wee
marketing [at] roommagazine [dot] com
partners [at] roommagazine [dot] com (for all ads inquiries)
Book Reviews Editor
Micah Killjoy
reviews [at] roommagazine [dot] com
Contest Coordinator
Ruchika Gothoskar
contests [at] roommagazine [dot] com
Community Engagement and Outreach Intern
Emma Jeffery
indigenousbrilliance [at] roommagazine [dot] com
primary contact for Indigenous Brilliance Collective
Community Engagement and Outreach Mentor (Indigenous Brilliance)
Karmella Cen Benedito De Barros
karmella [at] roommagazine [dot] com
Community Engagement and Outreach Mentor (Art Ecosystem)
Lexi Mellish Mingo
leximellishmingo [at] roommagazine [dot] com
Website Manager
Monica Calderon
monica[at]roommagazine[dot]com
Melissa Barrientos, Lena Belova, Serena Lukas Bhandar, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Molly Cross-Blanchard, Candace Fertile, Ruchika Gothoskar, Michelle Ha, Kendra Heinz, Aris Keshav, Micah Killjoy, Holly Lam, Hope Lauterbach, Annick MacAskill, Nara Monteiro, Rose Morris, Crystal Peng, Tara Preissl, Rebecca Russell, Ivy Sarker, Ellie Sawatzky, Geffen Semach, Jane Shi, Sylvia Symons, Rachel Thompson, Shristi Uprety, Délani Valin, Eleni Vlahiotis, Isabella Wang
Jane Hope, Kristin Cheung, Shagufta Pasta, Rose Morris, Stephanie Yu