Staff Rumble

Dear readers,

After a technical difficulty during our last Geist event threw me off my hosting game, I decided to enroll in improv classes. Now, each Wednesday, I ride my bike to the single-storey brick building in East Vancouver near the railroad tracks. I have six classmates and a crackerjack improv teacher who tells us not to be funny (because that means you’re thinking, not listening). Which is exactly the kind of advice I needed to hear when I got flustered hosting the Geist event.

Improv: what a way to feel alive. Great discomfort arrives as swiftly as the joy of discovery. I have delighted in being thrown into a scene with a relative stranger, and creating something from a single-word prompt (say, chandelier). Occasionally my mind becomes a blank slate—absolutely devoid of ideas—as I gape at my scene partner. But keeping at it, making “offers” (contributing information to the scene through dialogue or physical gesture), and eventually building a brief shared reality with someone? Fun. (Dad and I discovered the keys to the pantry hidden on top of the chandelier . . .)

It so happens that much of what I learn in improv class is directly applicable to writing:

• Start in the middle of the scene (“They’re not in the stable!”).

• Don’t hold on to it; say it. Then say some more.

• Gold is the Third Idea: a suggestion prompts an idea, which leads to another associated idea.

• At some point, stop inventing. Use what you’ve already created to finish the scene.

• If you build the world, the rest is easy.

• Suddenly, something happens . . .

• Improv is a combination of expanding the world and advancing the scene.

• Homework: people-watch!

• Commit.

• If you’re baking a cake, do it in your kitchen.

Keep at it!

—Dayna Mahannah, Events & Outreach Manager

July 21: Geist 132 Issue Launch at Enabling Arts!

Celebrate our Spring 2026 issue—in summer! The official launch party of Geist 132 features readings by local authors, an open mic, community, and refreshments.

💫 Readings by Geist authors Alex Leslie, Christine Lai, Cole Nowicki & Erin Vosters 💫

Tuesday, July 21
6 to 8pm
Enabling Arts
104-343 Railway Street, Vancouver

Free to attend, though please register on our Eventbrite page as space is limited. All are welcome.

An open mic will follow, so bring your poems, your bits of lit, your flash fiction, your mini-hybrid pieces, your scraps of non-fiction. We ask that you keep your reading to under 5 minutes, so everyone has a chance to dazzle. Sign up upon arrival :)

For more details and to RSVP, please follow the button below:

Better Churches, Kinder People: A Letter to the Editor

As a new subscriber, I’ve enjoyed reading through the website as I look forward to receiving issue 132. The feature essay, “The Dead Viking my Birthmother Gave Me” by Jerome Stueart (No. 126), really connected with me. Now in university with some modicum of freedom, I’m just discovering “better churches, kinder people, more affirming friends,” as he puts it. If you have more essays that stand at the intersection of queerness and spirituality, I’d love to know. I wish I got to read stuff like this growing up. If it weren’t for my creative writing classes and magazines like yours, I would have missed out on the works of so many interesting people. May your grants grow, expenses decrease, and both sides of your pillow be cold.

—Jed

Thank you, Jed! We share your sentiments. May we suggest the short story, “Rejoice in His Name” by Finnian Burnett, and the poetry feature, “Someone Else’s Lavish Cake” by Misha Solomon, both published in No. 129.

—The Editors

Congrats to Michelle Ha on Letters to My (Grand)Parents

Standing ovation to Geist’s Managing Editor, Michelle Ha, on the publication of Letters to My (Grand)Parents, an epistolary translation project co-led by Shanna Cheng.

The project is a collection of letters written by second- and third-generation Chinese Canadians to their parents or grandparents, accompanied by return letters from parents, grandparents, and surrogate elders.

Shanna and Michelle connected younger and older generations of Chinese Canadians through letter writing, translated by Joyce Deng, as a way to bridge cultural and communication gaps created by language barriers.

The initiative began with the question: “What do you wish to know about your parents and grandparents, and what would you share with them now?”

Michelle was in charge of layout design for the publication, and created the beautiful original cover art!

Letters is an ongoing project; follow @letters.project_ on Instagram for more publications and events.

From the Archives: “Laughing Heir” by Cary Fagan

From Geist 115, the Winter 2020 issue, original short fiction from Cary Fagan. “Laughing Heir” is about the surprises that befall us and what we do with the unexpected.

He could have sold Aunt Bessie’s house (worth about a million and a half, he’d checked) and bought his own place in Toronto with cash to spare. But the end of his marriage and the realization that he wasn’t the creative entrepreneur that he’d believed himself to be led him to want a larger change. Unfortunately, there weren’t any openings in the Vancouver office at the moment. The highest position available was manager of the Richmond outlet and Jerry, the boss said sympathetically, wasn’t about to count cartons of napkins and make sure the fryers would pass a health inspection.

“I’ll take it,” Jerry said.

“Are you serious?”

“It’ll give me a real understanding of the business. The kind that most executives don’t have. And then when a position does open up, I’ll be ready.”

“You do realize,” said his boss, “that you’ll have to wear a hairnet.”

Read the whole story on geist.com.

Micro-horoscopes for the Lit-Lorn

Geist's in-house bootleg astrologers are on vacation 😎

Image credit: Geist Horoscopes drawn by Dayna Mahannah