Student Success Stories

Recent Successes


Check out Who's #NextUP? An Interview with E&D graduate Shalini Nanayakkara, now working at UBC Press.

UTM alum twins publish two young adult novels after graduating. Sarena and Sasha Nanua published their latest novel Daughters of the Dawn on Sept. 6. The book is the second in the Ria and Rani duology, with the first title Sisters of the Snake, released earlier this year by HarperCollins.

U of T Mississauga Theatre and Drama alumnus Mark Crawford, Joins Cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

We are very pleased to congratulate Veronika Sizovaon as the Dean's Excellence Award winner in the category of Writing Excellence. The Committee was very impressed with her ENG273H5S essay, “The Spider of Light Defeating the Totalitarian Darkness in Danticat’s The Dew Breaker”.

Congratulations to Ayomide Bayowa, Mississauga's newest poet laureate.

Congratulations to Stevie Lambert, who has won a Dean's Excellence Award for Creative Activity for three truly remarkable poems.

Congratulations to Miranda Wiseman, who has received the Dean's Excellence Award for 2019-20 in the category of Creative Activity for "On These, I Cry," which she wrote for Professor Daniela Janes' ENG215H The Canadian Short Story.

Congratulations to Matt Maguire, who has received the Dean's Excellence Award for 2019-20 in the category of Writing Excellence for "Moon Grammar: Myth and Identity in Mann's Joseph Novels," which he wrote for an ENG390Y Individual Studies course directed by Professor Raji Soni on the subject of "The Modern Novel between Religious and Literary Criticism."

Congratulations to Alisa Samuel, who is completing a minor in Drama. Alisa wrote a lyric essay for a creative writing course taught by Professor Geoff Bouvier in 2019-20, and the essay has just been published in one of Canada's premier literary journals, The Puritan.

Congratulations to Rebecca Zseder for being the recipient of the Outstanding Program Performance Award for 2019-2020.

Congratulations to Zaynab Al-Kari for being the recipient of the 2019-20 Harold Sonny Ladoo Book Prize for Creative Writing for her collection of poems entitled "Season's of Grief."

Congratulations to Shayan Mehri for being awarded The R.W. Van Fossen Award in English (2019-2020).

Past Successes

Congratulations to Serah Louis on the publication of her story “Unveiling the Night” in Ricepaper Magazine’s Book Immersion: An Asian Anthology of Love, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction (2019).

Huge congrats to Arielle Kersey, winner of both the Dean's Excellence Award in the category of Writing Excellence for "Anonymous Women and Self-Abjection in Bleak House" and the President's Involvement Award, both in 2019.

Congratulations to Maryam Al-Juboori for being the recipient of the 2018-19 Harold Sonny Ladoo Book Prize for Creative Writing for her short story entitled "Fireworks."

Special Mention to Magdalena Partyka for her submission of Poems for the 2018-19 Harold Sonny Ladoo Book Prize for Creative Writing.

Commendations for the 2018-19 Harold Sonny Ladoo Book Prize for Creative Writing submissions from Mariam Hanna for her collections of poems entitled Snapshots or Nostalgia and Syeda Muhaddisah Batool for the short story entitled A Convincing December.

Congratulations to Shalini Nanayakkara on her successful application to UTM's Undergraduate Research Competition for her project entitled Elemental Criticism: Manfred and Modern Fantasy.

Congratulations to Maria Popa for being the recipient of the 2017 Harold Sunny Ladoo Book Prize for her submission of Poems.

Special Mention for the 2017 Harold Sunny Ladoo Book Prize to: Shaquille Reynolds-Pottinger for her submission of Poems and Susana Correia for her synopsis entitled "The Darkness Over Clay Hill."

Congratulations to TDS grad Mercedes Morris who won the Douglas Campbell Award to Assist in the Creation of Theatre for her work with Act Out Youth Theatre at Stratford’s Tyrone Guthie Awards event (Sept 2017).

Congratulations to Qasim Khan for winning the Jean A. Chalmers Theatre Training Award at Stratford’s Tyrone Guthie Awards event (Sept 2017).

Congratulations to Mehak Kawatra, winner of UTM's Founder's Medal for top graduating student - all disciplines - in 2017! Mehak, we are so, so, so proud of you. It couldn't be more deserved. Click here for an interview with Mehak as she reflects on her time at UTM and in the Department of English & Drama.

Congratulations to Maria Popa, E&D graduate, for winning the E.A. Robinson Medal for the best student in the humanities at UTM in 2017. What an amazing achievement Maria, congratulations! We are all extremely proud.

Congratulations to Gabriela Caballero for being selected as The R.W. Van Fossen Award in English recipient for 2016-17.

Congratulations to Mehak Kawatra for being selected as a 2017 Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award winner! Mehak has demonstrated great leadership potential and a commitment to making the U of T community a great place.

Congratulations to Merium Khan for being awarded the V.A. De Luca Book Prize (2016) for outstanding written work entitled "'A World of Worlds, as Pendents in each Eare': Poetic Vitalism in Cavendish’s Poems, and Fancies."

Congratulations to Jessica Marie Giles for being awarded the V.A. De Luca Book Prize (2016) for outstanding written work entitled "Narrative Loop Rhizomes: Paradoxical Agency and Design in Aisle and The Stanley Parable".

Congratulations to Paul Helmut for being awarded the 2016 Harold Sonny Ladoo Book Prize for Creative Writing for outstanding written work for his "The Scheme of These Three Doors"

Congratulations to David Yee (TDS graduate) as winner of the 2015 Governor General’s Award for Drama – for carried away on the crest of a wave, first produced at the Tarragon Theatre and published by Playwrights Canada Press.

Congratulations to Julianna Chianelli for being awarded the V.A. De Luca Book Prize (2015) for "Phyllis Webb's Poetry of Resistance and its Power to Redeem the Female Poet", for ENG354Y Canadian Poetry.

Congratulations to Hailey Gillis (graduated in 2013) for being nominated in the Music Theatre Division as a key member of the amazing Ensemble in Albert Shultz's production of the new music drama Spoon River for the Soulpepper Theatre Company.

Congratulations to Chiamaka G. Ugwu (graduated in 2014) for being nominated in the Independent Theatre Division as one of the equally amazing Ensemble in the Soheil Parsa production of the Lorca classic Blood Wedding for the Modern Times Stage Company and Aluna Theatre.

Congratulations to Yasmin Jajarmi for being one of the two winners to receive the Dean’s Excellence Award for writing excellence.

Congratulations to Sarah Israr for being the recipient of the 2014 Harold Sonny Ladoo Prize for Creative Writing for the submission of The Secret Society, an engaging and, in many respects, accomplished fantasy novel!

Congratulations to Paige Maria McPhee for an Honourable Mention for the 2014 Harold Sonny Ladoo Prize for Creative Writing for a moving and subtle poem entitled The Weigh In.

Congratulations to Daniel Jeffrey Goodman for an Honourable Mention for the 2014 Harold Sonny Ladoo Prize for Creative Writing for a playful and experimental prose piece entitled Pedestrians.

Congratulations to Cherylann Cawthorn for being the recipient of the 2013 V.A. De Luca Book Prize for "Labelling 'Insanity' in How I spent My Summer Holidays by W. O Mitchell and Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje," written for ENG353Y5Y, taught by Professor Brent Wood.

Congratulations to Victoria MacFarlane for being the recipient of the 2013 Harold Sonny Ladoo Prize for Creative Writing for the submission of the novella/long story "Sparks Fly Up".

Congratulations to Luke Sawczak for an Honourable Mention for the 2013 Harold Sonny Ladoo Prize for Creative Writing for the collection of poems entitled "Mississauga in Sepia.

Congratulations to TDS Students at LA Web Fest: Jason Leaver's indie web soap opera OUT WITH DAD, featuring 2009 grad Kate Conway with current students Lindsey Middleton and Elizabeth Stuart-Morris, won special recognition at the LA Web Fest in California last weekend. Along with three other Canadian series, it will now move on to the Marseille Web Fest, the Emmys of the web series world.

Congratulations to Ms Devani Singh, one of our recent graduates who is one of only 60 international scholars awarded an extremely competitive Gates Scholarship (see p. 56!) in 2011 for graduate study at the University of Cambridge.

Congratulations to Qasim Khan (graduated in 2008) for being nominated for Outstanding Individual Performance in the Theatre for Young Audiences Division for his work in Beneath the Banyan Tree for Theatre Direct in 2009.