Two Young-ish Writers

Safiya Hopfe is a Creative Writing student in the University of Victoria’s Fine Arts department. She’s been a Work Study Student at the prestigious Malahat Review literary journal, and written for Exclaim! — a monthly Canadian music magazine. Her latest essay, “A Mind I Trust”, is going to be published in Room Magazine's upcoming Neurodivergence issue. 

In this episode, Saf highlights how "A Mind I Trust" grew from being a workshop assignment at UVic—initially called "My Room"—to a final piece in Room this year. She also discusses what inspired her to pursue a writing career, her experience battling concussions and how that impacts her creative process. What it's like to be published in the Vancouver Sun in Grade 6, and her interest in music journalism. 

Jeff Pearlman is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, he's also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN. His latest book, Three Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers dynasty, is going to be released on Sep. 22.

In this interview, Jeff talks about the inspiration behind writing this book, his writing style adapting and changing as he's gotten older, how he chronicled the 1996-2004 Lakers teams without speaking to Kobe Bryant, and having that same burning passion and excitement for this Three Ring Circus coming out as he did when his first book was published. 

You can follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffpearlman and order his book on Amazon or wherever books are being sold. 

Tyler Lowey is the University of Victoria Vikes Sports and Information Director, where he manages the Vikes athletics social media accounts, and produces content for the various Vikes varsity teams. He's also been a sports editor at the Strathmore Times, interned at Global News, and worked as an associate producer at CBC radio. Currently, he's also the co-host of Give and Go Vikes — a podcast dedicated to giving insight the lives of UVic student-athletes.

In this episode, we discuss how working multiple jobs helped Lowey gain the experience needed to land the UVic SID job, the pressure of covering four national championships in his first year on the beat, and some of his favourite memories so far at UVic. We also discuss his baseball career at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., and how his hard work and determination from sports translated into journalism.

You can follow Tyler on Twitter @tlowey9

Listen to Give and Go Vikes on Apple Podcasts, or where you get your pods! 

Noah Wolf is a broadcasting student from Ohio University. He's entering his final semester this fall, and specializes in broadcasting. He's called games for Ohio's basketball, soccer, and field hockey teams, and was a broadcaster for the West Coast League's Bend Elks in 2018 and spend 2019 as the Voice of the Elks. 

In this episode, we discuss a recent Medium article Wolf wrote detailing his decision to stay at home this fall while he course moved online, how he decided to become a broadcaster, his memorable calls (and one he'd like back), the importance of chemistry in a booth, along with his future goals. 

Leah Vann is a journalist from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. 
 
She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in biology, but ultimately opted to pursue a career in writing instead of medicine. She's got her official start in the journalism industry by working for her campus newspaper, The Daily Texan. She's also worked as a sports editor at the Steamboat Pilot & Today in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and sports reporter at the Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa. 

In this episode, we discuss how Leah's always been passionate about sports, about how she had her story woven prominently through a Sports Illustrated feature on a running back from her high school, Johnathan Gray, and the backstory to her first nationally published piece for NBC News last weekend. 

Andrew Favakeh is a journalist from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

He's a reporter for Butler's university newspaper, the Butler Collegian, and covers Butler's men's basketball team for the IndyStar. Favakeh's work has appeared in SB Nation's Liberty Ballers and FanSided's the StepBack. 

Earlier this month, Favakeh published a profile for FanSided about former number two overall NBA draft pick Derrick Williams — where he chronicles his trials, tribulations, and how Williams reinvented himself in basketball in Europe. 

In this conversation, we discuss the inspiration behind the Williams profile, his writing style, and why he decided to pursue a career in journalism after not knowing what he wanted to do coming into university.  

In this introduction, host Josh Kozelj discusses his reasoning for starting this podcast, the highs and lows of writing, and how he hopes to learn more from other "young-ish" writers about why they decided to pursue a career in this crazy profession.