POET LAUREATE | Kyeren Regehr

7th POET LAUREATE

Kyeren Regehr

The City of Victoria's 7th Poet Laureate

Jan 1st 2025 to Dec 31st 2026

Serving the community on the lək̓ʷəŋən homelands.

Kyeren Regehr is a poet and writer living in Victoria since 2004. She is the author of Cult Life (finalist for the National ReLit Awards and The Victoria Butler Book Prize); Disassembling A Dancer (winner of the inaugural Raven Chapbooks contest), and two earlier chapbooks. Her poetry has been published in literary periodicals and anthologies in Canada, Australia and the USA, thrice longlisted for the CBC Poetry Awards, and has received grants from Canada Council for the Arts. She is the editor of AFTER: Poems in Response, forthcoming with Caitlin Press.

Kyeren is the Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetry, one of Canada's longest running reading series, approaching its 30th season this fall, and she served on the editorial board of Canada's iconic literary periodical, The Malahat Review. She holds an MFA in Writing (earning The Victoria Medal for her BFA in Writing), and taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria. She has mentored poets through the Writer’s Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, and works as a literary editor, writing teacher and mentor.

Kyeren’s background is in professional dance and theatre, and she once found herself in Victoria’s Poetry Slam finals by accident. In 2024 she completed Indigenous Canada through the University of Alberta. She lives and writes with gratitude on the unceded homelands of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.

THE POETRY AMBASSADORS

Zoe Dickinson | Nina Mosall | Tracy Wai de Boer

The Poetry Ambassadors work with the Poet Laureate, helping her to serve the community of Victoria, offering outreach, event support, and more. This new initiative is inspired by the Vancouver Poets Laureate, and was originally created by Rachael Rose.

ZOE DICKINSON

Zoe Dickinson’s poetry is rooted in British Columbia’s Pacific coastline, with a focus on local ecology and human relationships with nature. She is a manager at Russell Books, one of Canada’s largest used, antiquarian, and new bookstores. Between 2020-2023, she was the Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series, where she continues to volunteer as a board member. Zoe has a B.A. in Classics and Liberal Arts from Concordia University, and an MLIS from Dalhousie.

She has published two award-winning chapbooks: Public Transit (Leaf Press, 2015) and intertidal: poems from the littoral zone (Raven Chapbooks, 2022). Her poem “let the world” was shortlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize in 2024. Zoe’s work has also appeared in anthologies including Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees (2022), and literary journals such as Existere, Prairie Fire, and Contemporary Verse 2. She is co-editor of the anthology After: Poems in Dialogue, forthcoming from Caitlin Press, and her first full-length poetry collection, Staff Picks for Invertebrates, is forthcoming from Guernica Editions in 2026. www.zoedickinson.com

NINA MOSALL

Nina Mosall is a writer and Public Librarian currently based in Victoria. Bebakhshid, her debut poetry collection, came out in June of 2023. The collection explores themes of identity, immigration, familial relationships, and the romance of everyday life through everyday observations, historical storytelling, the natural environment of Turtle Island, and connection. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, as well as a Masters in Library and Information Studies from the University of British Columbia. Her poetry and short stories have appeared frequently in literary journals Pulp and Event. When she's not writing, singing to babies or helping people login to their email accounts, Nina enjoys watching films, walking various trails on the island with her dog, swimming in lakes, and reading on beaches. She is currently working on her second poetry collection.
ninamosall.com

TRACY WAI DE BOER

Tracy Wai de Boer is an award-winning writer, poet, and interdisciplinary artist. Her debut book, Nostos, a collection of poetry and experimental photography, will be out Spring 2025 with Palimpsest Press. Tracy’s chapbook, maybe, basically, was published with Anstruther Press in 2020 and was nominated for the bpNichol Award. She has co-authored multiple books including Impact: Women Writing After Concussion, which won the Book Publishers of Alberta Best Non-Fiction Award and was named one of CBC’s Best Non-Fiction Books of 2021. Tracy was a resident at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2017, 2023) and her work has been featured internationally in outlets such as Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Catapult, Plenitude Magazine, Ricepaper Magazine, G U E S T, canthius, Prude Magazine, Petal Projections, and Unearthed Online Literary Journal. tracywaideboer.com

EVENTS

As Victoria's Poet Laureate, Kyeren will curate poetry events that speak to the heart of the city—its people, land, stories, and community connection. These events invite presence, reflection, and creative participation, offering both seasoned poets and community members opportunities to gather around language, and experience the power and immediacy of poetry.

Response Poetry

Many events include a short audience-writing component. Pencils and index cards will be on hand, along with an invitation to respond, in your own words, to what you’ve seen or heard. This simple practice of response poetry brings us into deeper relationship with the moment, ourselves, and one another.

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POETRY for EARTH DAY 2025

Tuesday April 22nd, 2025

More details soon!

POETRY ON THE LAND
A National Poetry Month Event 2025

Date: Sunday, April 27th, 2 p.m.
Location: Beacon Hill Park—Beside the Garry Oak Meadow near the children's playground (or at the Band Shelter if the field is wet).

Join me for Poetry on the Land—an afternoon of poetry, reflection, and community connection.

The event features a special welcome by Brianna Bear, Songhees Territory Acknowledger, with readings by Sho Yamagushiku (2024 Victoria Butler Book Prize finalist for Shima), Maleea Acker (author of Hesitating Once to Feel Glory), Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi (author of Everything Good is Dying), and Shauntelle Dick-Clarkson (2025-2027 Youth Poet Laureate of Victoria).

After the poetry, audience members are invited to write in response to the Welcome and the Poetry, and to share their own words. These words will contribute to a Community Poem celebrating our shared connection to the land.

All are welcome!