Scrivener Creative Review doesn’t save the good china for special occasions. Whilst sitting down over candlelit tea with Izzi Holmes, Jacob Sponga, and Isabella McBride, the respective Editors-in-Chief and Managing Editor of McGill’s oldest literary magazine, one thing was clear: This is a publication deeply invested in creating and maintaining a timeless aesthetic.
The conversation began with a brief history of Scrivener.
“Scrivener was founded in 1980 […] in the department of English. In our first few years, we published the likes of Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Louis Dudek, F.R. Scott, and P.K. Page. Scrivener seems to have continued pretty steadily throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, picking up such eminence as Anne Carson, Seamus Heaney, [and] Michael Ondaatje. It continued throughout the 2010s […] and then went dormant during the pandemic,” Sponga told The Tribune.
The current team relaunched its first issue last April and plans to release two new issues this year—one in the fall and one in the winter. They also seek to honour the magazine’s past, while looking towards the future, through its website. The Scrivener team digitally publishes key archival work, including an interview with Anne Carson from 1997 and four poems by Leonard Cohen from 1982.
But their vision goes beyond nostalgia; they strive to build a community that connects readers and writers alike.
“We’re hoping to cultivate literary excellence, and perhaps even more than that, a sense of community both in Montreal and beyond,” Holmes said.
Part of that vision is visual. Scrivener’s current design embraces a monochrome, minimalist, and intentional style that equally captures both its artistic value and literary merit. Sponga mentioned that the team is still experimenting with the design of the magazine, but it is clear that aesthetic cohesiveness remains key in their creative direction.
But it is the team dynamic that best embodies the spirit of the magazine. With Scrivener’s storied history looming over the team, they delved into how it felt suited to take on this responsibility. In the spirit of true teamwork, each member answered for the other.
“Izzi, ever the industrious socialite, is a good fit for the magazine because she lends it a certain tempo,” said Sponga.
Homes in turn said, “I find Jacob’s care for language and aesthetics alike very impressive, and truly value his attentiveness to detail. Both make our magazine all the better.”
Holmes also singled out McBride, commenting on her work ethic.
“I had Isabella in mind for Managing Editor because she puts the same amount of care into everything she does, whether that be sending emails, making schedules, or discussing the sentence structure of a short story.”
Scrivener’s expansive and diligent editorial board currently includes undergraduate students, graduate students, and PhD candidates across a number of disciplines at McGill. They collaborate over four sections: design, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction/interviews.
A key moment for the team—and the culmination of their months of persistent work—was the launch party held on April 24, 2025, at Cardinal Tea Room.
Holmes said, “The launch was proof that what we were doing had worked and that we could reach an audience in real time. Everyone was excited about the contributors, with poems by Medrie Purdham and Derek Webster, as well as interviews with Montreal icons like Dimitri Roussopoulos and Gabrielle Drolet.”
As someone who attended the launch, I completely understood Holmes; it was the perfect encapsulation of what it meant to be part of Montreal’s rich and dynamic literary community. The invited contributors, who had the chance to read their work aloud, were introduced by editors who had worked on the respective pieces, exemplifying the collaborative effort that went into publishing the magazine. Scrivener also invited other Montreal magazines—including Ahoy, Stimulant, and Soliloquies—to sell their own work. The launch truly showed Scrivener’s investment in art, literature, and most importantly, cultivating a sense of community with others who share these interests.
Scrivener is accepting submissions for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art until October 6th. Copies of issue 46 are available at The Word Bookstore. For more, head to https://scrivenerreview.com.
