Get to know our Issue #7 "PERENNIAL" Literary Contributors!
- B222 Journal
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
Gabriel’s Responses:
Hello readers! It's a few days before the release of Issue #7 Perennial. After fourteen weeks, we are happy to see and celebrate with our contributors during our launch on April 7th, 2026 at HMC Campus C-Wing 5th Floor from 5-8 PM.
Perennial Launch Party
Join us for an evening of food, fun and community to celebrate the launch of B222's seventh issue, Perennial.
If you want to read the journal, please click this link to check out the digitalized version of Perennial available soon. If you want to snag a copy for yourself and can't come to the launch, please send contact us at b222journal@gmail.com.
Tick tock! We are days away from our launch. During our busy preparation, we had the chance to interview our contributors and learn more about their pieces and their artistic process. Meet some of our Perennial literary contributors below!
Theodore Elizabeth
Theodore Grace is a fourth-year student in the Creative Writing & Publishing program and a proud intern at Augur Magazine. He specializes in poetry and unconventional fiction stories, both romantic and macabre. Originally from the town of Carleton Place, ON, he now lives with his mother and sister in the GTA.
I wanted to play with the juxtaposition between the way we process memories that are sudden and unexpected vs. ones related to deliberate social rituals.
Question 1: How has working with B222 been?
Excellent—super communicative, friendly, and interested in author success. This is especially true of Paige Leblanc, they’re such a sharp-eyed editor and the care and close eye they gave the poem augmented it in line with my vision and even helped me understand my writing better. I’m glad that I put my poetry in B222’s hands and I emphatically encourage anyone interested in submitting to do so—you’re better at this than you think, and this team is interested in showing that to you. It’s a publication that actively wants you to be experimental with your art and wants to celebrate your for it.
Question 2: Italics vs. Regular?
I wanted to play with the juxtaposition between the way we process memories that are sudden and unexpected vs. ones related to deliberate social rituals, as well as the way we process imagery when going over those memories. It’s visually engaging and encourages a reader to process the choppy stanzas at a faster pace, making it similar to the flashing of a memory. The wedding/car crash clash came before that formatting choice—it was based on a prompt about reverse associations (a negative thing being used as a metaphor for a positive one, or vice versa)—but it was heightened by it.
Olivia Davenport
Olivia Davenport is pursuing her Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing and Publishing at Sheridan College. Olivia does her best thinking while hiking or looking out the window on long drives. She finds music essential for creativity, so she’ll always be found with headphones in whenever she’s writing.
Going through the editorial process, the editors really helped me to strengthen that part of the story, but what I found even more interesting was the other thematic elements they found in that first draft that they encouraged me to pursue.
Question 1: How has your experience been working with B222?
My experience working with B222 has been great. This is the first story that I have had published, and so I definitely came into the process with a good amount of nerves and self-doubt, but that went away as soon as we began. I think what I have appreciated most about working with B222 is the passion that I have seen from every member of the team. I noticed it especially while working on the editing process of my short story, as the editors were so encouraging and were always there to help me if I was struggling. "Piety Forgotten" wouldn't exist in the form it does now without the help and encouragement of the B222 team, and I am so grateful for their unending patience and positivity.
Question 2: What themes were most important to you to convey throughout the writing/editorial process of "Piety Forgotten"?
When I first submitted "Piety Forgotten," I think I was focused on the idea of the unravelling of belief, but the execution of that theme was not as strong as it could have been. Going through the editorial process, the editors really helped me to strengthen that part of the story, but what I found even more interesting was the other thematic elements they found in that first draft that they encouraged me to pursue. They pushed me to be intentional with every word, using the space I had to make the most impact. As I worked on the story and really thought about its thematic significance, it became more so a piece about the performance of perfection –or rather, the end of that performance.
Amanda Dean
Amanda Dean is in current pursuit of a bachelor in Creative Writing and Publishing at Sheridan College. She is one of the executives of Sheridan’s Creative Writing Corner and takes part in organizing workshops with established writers and poets. She loves rain and the moon an adequate amount.
I wanted to write a cozy piece that had something to do with lanterns and letting go.
Question 1: How was working with the team?
Working with the team was wonderful. You can tell that they all really care about what they’re doing and are there trying to help you get your piece into the best possible version it can be in the short time we have to get it ready for print. I’m really lucky to have gotten the chance to work with this team and feel immensely grateful to Micaela for all the hard work she put into this. She was so happy to sit down when I had a list of possible new titles and discuss with me which ones felt right for the piece. I genuinely don’t think I could have gotten it to where it is now without her.
Question 2: What made you choose to write about Yi Peng?
I’ve always been a girl who loved Rapunzel. She was probably my favorite Disney princess and I adore the lantern scene. I also grew up part Swiss which meant every August we would join the rest of the community in the country and lit lanterns. I wanted to write a cozy piece that had something to do with lanterns and letting go. So I tried to find a tradition that had something significant added to it. Yi Peng was a tradition that seemed to hold more weight than either experiences I had growing up which is what drew me into the tradition itself.
Dawn A. Kudlowich
Dawn A. Kudlowich is a queer Anishnaabe third-year Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing student. She is a multimedia artist and writer who works with short fiction and poetry. Her goal across art mediums is to make the unsettling beautiful, create emotional reactions, and provoke deeper thought.
A significant amount of my images and specific language comes to me in early drafts but not every word I chose at first best reflects what I’m trying to convey.
Question 1: How has your experience been working with B222?
I have had a wonderful time working with the B222 Team for both this issue and the last. The whole editing process has been very helpful as always and I had such a good time discussing changes and the direction of both of my poems with the editors. They really helped me work out the flow of one of them and the language in the other. Everyone on the team has been very accommodating for my requests/questions, and has done a really great job with informing me about this year’s market coordination. I am so excited to see the whole team’s effort come together for the launch and market!
Question 2: What is your process like with your word choice and the language you employ? Does it often come to you in your early drafts, or do you find it through revisions?
Usually when I write poetry I am in a positive flow space, the more creative and loose my mood is the more interesting the language becomes. A lot of my choice around language comes from association with the surrounding language or in relation to the action or feeling I’m describing. A significant amount of my images and specific language comes to me in early drafts but not every word I chose at first best reflects what I’m trying to convey. The decision comes to me in later drafts whether it is best for the current poem or if it needs to be its own elsewhere. Sometimes I just have to give up the direction I thought wanted to go in favour of the direction that is presented to me.
Sasha Yurchenko
Sasha Yurchenko is a Ukrainian Canadian author and an editor for Ivy Literary Journal. Her other work can be found in Pandamonium’s Darkness Falls anthology. Born and raised in Ukraine, she writes stories that explore the mythology of her land, as well as her personal connection to home.
I've always thought that it is my duty to educate people on what's going on in Ukraine. Mere facts don't leave impression anymore.
Question 1: How has your experience been working with B222?
B222 is a cozy place with familiar faces. The whole process has been smooth and extremely organized. The highlight was working with my editor Micaela who was very accepting with my goals and vision for the piece. I was inspired to make some bold and interesting choices with the help of B222 team, and it will remain a highlight of the journey that has been this piece.
Question 2: How did writing a piece so close to your heart make you feel?
Writing is always a vulnerable process that inevitably involves putting a piece of yourself into other personality. I had to face myself, my rights and wrong, the scariest moments of my life, and that was the most vulnerable I've ever been in my writing. My seventeen-year-old self is a completely different person from who I am today. I think this piece allowed me to look differently at the memories that lived in my memory only as emotions.
Question 3: What do you hope the reader takes away from your story?
I've always thought that it is my duty to educate people on what's going on in Ukraine. Mere facts don't leave impression anymore. I was telling a story of a teenager who was robbed of so many first experiences because of war. I wanted my reader to understand that anyone could be in my place. War can come to any home, and it just turned out to be me. Those are experiences that keep haunting, and there's no escape. The war is still going on. Ukrainians need your support. We need tou for humanity to win. Slava Ukraini!
Check out our other interviews with our Issue #7 Visual Art contributors!
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