Cale Plett

Cale Plett, BA
Valedictorian

It was a single class that turned Cale Plett’s initial notions around and led him to pursue his passion at the University of Winnipeg.

Plett (he/they) will graduate with a BA English (Creative Writing) after four years applied to studies at UWinnipeg, but that wasn’t always the path he felt he was destined to follow.

“I wasn’t planning on studying English and then I had Intro English with Jonathan Ball in my first year at UW and I thought, 'Wait, this is exactly what I want to be doing,’” said Plett.

Plett lauded UWinnipeg’s creative writing program and said it led to a more intensive study of the craft. Plett’s works of poetry have since been printed in a wide variety of publications — including UWinnipeg’s literary journal juice and eclectic quarterly Grain Magazine out of Saskatchewan, and will soon be seen in CV2, the nationally recognized Winnipeg literary journal.

Plett plans to pursue post-graduate schooling, but for now the focus is on rest, a concept that can be easily overlooked while toiling through the stresses of the world.

“I would describe myself as a writer; I would describe myself as an ally. And my project right now is learning to rest, which is different than learning to stop moving,” Plett said. “You can spend a lot of time in university trying to prove how smart you are and sometimes in there you forget how to listen to people and remember how much you don’t know.”