Taryn Hubbard's Blog

The Fraser Valley Writers Festival is an annual two-day literary festival featuring keynote addresses, readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, live podcast recordings, and more, hosted at the Abbotsford campus of the University of the Fraser Valley. It’s free and open to all.

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been invited to participate this year! I have been commissioned to produce a new piece on the theme “Sound” in the afternoon, and I’ll be chairing a panel on the theme “Silence” in...

The following essay appeared in the summer 2025 edition of WRITE magazine .

When my daughter and I visited an eerily empty mall when she was a toddler, she did something wonderful: she started joyfully running. Suddenly, the cavernous corridors of the empty mall became a much-needed playground on a rainy day.

Once I caught up with her, we walked hand-in-hand through the hallways of the mall, past the shops and food court restaurants, and alongside the thick maintenance doors that remained f...

When I published my first book, Desire Path, in late 2020, we were well into the pandemic, so in-person events were rare if not non-existent. In fact, I don’t recall if I had the chance to do anything in-person. All my readings were online, which I was grateful for because I really wanted to read from my first book!

Fast forward to this past spring with a debut novel set to publish, I started to think about author visits at bookstores. I’d seen other writers do this and I wondered if this cou...

Over the past month or so, I’ve been working with Talonbooks editor ryan fitzpatrick on the copyedits for my second poetry collection, Beautiful Unknown Future.

I’m very excited about this collection. I started writing it a couple of years ago when Aaron and I were doing an artist residency in Maple Ridge. It started off slowly, with a poem here and a poem there, and then suddenly I had something I could shape and work with. I was surprised I got to this point because I wasn’t sure if I’d eve...

This spring my debut novel, The Very Good Best Friend, launched into the world and I’ve been busy reading the book, promoting it, and writing content about some of its themes.

Essays related to the book have been published online, with more slated for later in the year. It’s wonderful to have this space to step back and think about my inspirations and interests in this way:

I’ll be breaking the ice on my first public reading of The Very Good Best Friend at one of my favourite reading series, Words in the Burbs.

Words in the Burbs takes place at the charming independent bookstore, Western Sky Books in Port Coquitlam. The series is curated and hosted by writers Lynn Easton and Christina Myers, and co-hosted by Western Sky Books owner, Tamara Gorin. It’s free to attend and open to all.

This series has been around for a number of years, and I had the chance to re...

I have the opportunity to lead another creativing writing workshop at Sidekick Brewing as part of the Chilliwack Arts Council’s Sunday School of Art.

When: Sunday, Mar. 23 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Cost: $25 (includes a drink, including non-alcoholic)

How to Register: Go to the Zeffy page

The last session I led was awesome. The space is great, just perfect for writing.

In about six weeks or so my first novel will be published. It’s called The Very Good Best Friend and it’s a punchy literary thriller about a woman who sets out on a journey to rescue her best friend from an abandoned, desolate mall in the countryside of British Columbia. At the heart of this story is a friend who will stop at nothing to help her best friend from being used for her labour and talents by a narcissistic billionaire. Along the way she uncovers haunting secrets about her own family t...

I have the privilege of leading a writing workshop in my community in mid-February.

Sunday, February 16, from 3-5 pm 

Introduction to creative writing with author and poet Taryn Hubbard 

$25 with 10 seats available

Let your creativity loose in an interactive workshop on the joys of writing. In a fun and supportive environment, we’ll explore a variety of techniques and prompts that can be applied to journaling, poetry, fiction, memoir, and other form...

Over the holidays, I had the chance to spend quality time with my family. We played games, put together puzzles, baked, cooked, watched movies, read, hiked, and so much more. It was lovely and it felt like the perfect refresh to a busy year.

2025 is looking like another busy year, and I’m here for it completely. My debut novel, The Very Good Best Friend, will be published around April and later in the year I’ll likely get to work more on my second poetry collection that will be published next...