Students in Humber Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing (BCPW) program are putting their writing and editing skills to good use on the new Arrival magazine.

Arrival is a student-led literary and arts magazine that’s designed as an avenue to showcase the work of young writers from across the country’s post-secondary institutions. Meaghan Strimas, BCPW program coordinator and professor, says the goal is for Arrival to be a place where emerging writers from Canada’s creative and professional writing programs can publish their best original work and have it be a vibrant hub that lifts up the next generation of writers.

The magazine’s editorial plan is to publish poetry, short stories and creative non-fiction as well as interviews with writers and student artwork. Strimas said it can be difficult for writers just starting out to get published in literary journals and magazines, so who better to help their peers than the young writers in the Humber program. With Arrival, they’re building a network and a community of people who share a passion to connect with readers and writers alike.

“What I really like about Arrival is that it gives the students agency – they’re making the editorial decisions on who to interview and which submission to accept,” said Strimas. “They’re curating the entire magazine and that helps them build confidence. This is a great learning experience for the students as they’re learning by doing.”

Strimas, who’s the faculty lead on Arrival along with BCPW professor David Brock, said the students take on leadership roles with the magazine and problem solve any issues that may arise.

Ariesha Mais and Patricia Arhinson are BCPW students and co-managing editors of Arrival. Both hope to work in the publishing industry after graduating and felt that getting involved with the extracurricular magazine would be helpful.

Mais said it was valuable to get a sense of what editors are looking for when it comes to submitting their works for publishing consideration and now has a better understanding of the submissions process.

Arhinson, meanwhile, is eyeing an editing career and felt this was a good opportunity to get experience while also having fun working on the magazine. Arhinson used what she learned in the program in her role but also diversified her skill set through Arrival.

Both Mais and Arhinson developed editing and proofreading as well as project management and leadership skills through their positions with the magazine. They even found it has helped with their writing and to think more critically about the words they’re using and how they will be perceived by the reader.

“I’ve learned a lot, and this experience has been great for building community and making connections with other writers,” said Arhinson. “It’s been fun getting to read other people’s work from across the country.”

The first edition of Arrival was released in the spring. All the artwork in the issue was created by Humber students in the Art Foundation and Visual and Digital Arts programs.  

The goal is to put out two editions a year with the second edition slated for this December.

Find out more by visiting the Arrival website.