Isabella Wang: student, writer, and literary community volunteer

Isabella Wang spends so much time studying at Simon Fraser University that the cleaners have started bringing her samosas. However, it’s not surprising that Wang has made a second home at SFU. She loves pursuing her double major in English and World Languages and Literatures, as it has helped her to develop her writing career and share her knowledge with the local literary community.

Wang didn’t always intend to study English when she went to university.

“Being the only child of two immigrant parents, I was under a lot of pressure to pursue something in the sciences, criminology, medicine—anything that wasn’t in the arts,” Wang says.

While still in high school, though, she discovered a passion for writing and started submitting her work to literary magazines. Well-known Canadian publications like The New Quarterly recognized Wang’s talent and she became the youngest writer ever shortlisted for the magazine’s essay contest.

“I thought that if I could just get one thing published I could prove to myself and my family that I was a ‘writer’ now,” she says.

Read more on the Department of English web site ...