PLANET EARTH POETRY is a 29-year-old weekly reading series celebrating poets and poetry. Our season runs from September—June (with a break in December) featuring local poets and poets from across Canada. We host the LONGEST RUNNING all-poetry open mic in Victoria—since 1995!

planet earth poetry ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: kyeren Regehr

**Kyeren Regehr, Artistic Director** (photo: John Threlfall)

Kyeren Regehr’s collection Cult Life, was a finalist for the 2021 ReLit Awards and The Victoria Butler Book Prize; Disassembling A Dancer won the inaugural Raven Chapbooks contest. Since 2008, her poetry has been published in dozens of literary periodicals and anthologies in Canada, Australia, and the USA, including The Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Literature, Best New Poets, Best Canadian Poetry in English, Arc Poetry Magazine, Hecate, and many others. Her work has been thrice longlisted for the CBC Poetry Awards and has received grants from Canada Council for the Arts. Although born in Australia, she was raised as a writer in Canada—she holds a BFA and MFA in Writing, taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, and served as an editor on the poetry board of The Malahat Review. She has mentored poets through the Writer’s Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, and works as a freelance literary editor and writing mentor. Kyeren’s background is in professional dance and theatre, and she once found herself in Victoria’s Poetry Slam finals by accident. She recently completed Indigenous Canada, an online course through the University of Alberta, and she lives and writes with gratitude on the unceded homelands of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.

More about Kyeren here: www.kyerenregehr.ca

planet earth poetry board of directors

President: Anne Hopkinson, Vice President: Bill Trott, Treasurer: TBA, Secretary: Marlene Grand Maître, Directors: Wendy Donawa & Barbara Pelman

**Anne Hopkinson, President**
**Anne Hopkinson** writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from her home in Victoria. She is a retired teacher, nature lover, and water rat. Her work appears in anthologies: *Walk Myself Home* by Caitlin Press, *V6A, Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside* (Arsenal Pulp Press), and *Poet to Poet* by Guernica Press. Most recently Refugium, by Caitlin Press. She won the Victoria Writer’s Society Creative Non-/fiction Contest in 2018, and The Canadian Stories Poetry Prize for 2019. Her work was short-listed for the BC Federation of Writers Poetry Prize in 2019, and in the FBCW BC and Yukon short fiction prize in 2020.

**Zoe Dickinson, Director & PEP’s Grant Writer**.
**Zoe Dickinson** has published two award-winning chapbooks: *Public Transit* (Leaf Press, 2015) and *intertidal: poems from the littoral zone* (Raven Chapbooks, 2022). Her 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.* Her first full-length poetry collection is forthcoming from Guernica Editions in 2026, and she has work forthcoming in the 2024 *Montreal Prize Anthology*.
Zoe 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. Zoe has a B.A. in Classics and Liberal Arts from Concordia University, and an MLIS from Dalhousie.

**Susan Olding, Secretary**
**Susan Olding** is the author of *Big Reader: Essays*, a finalist for the Canadian Authors Association Fred Kerner Award and the Alberta Publishing Awards Trade Nonfiction Book of the Year, and *Pathologies: A Life in Essays*, selected by 49th Shelf and Amazon.ca as one of 100 Canadian books to read in a lifetime. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared widely in literary journals and magazines throughout Canada and the U.S., and have won a National Magazine Award, the Edna Staebler Prize for the Personal Essay, and other honours. With more than three decades of teaching and editorial experience in settings ranging from community centres and high school classrooms to graduate level seminars, she currently mentors writers through the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. More about Susan at www.susanolding.com

**Bill Trott, Vice President**
**Bill Trott** served as Chief Privacy Officer at the University of Victoria from 2009 until his retirement in 2019. Previously he worked for the Ministry of Health, and for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia. He was with the Offices of the Ombudsman in British Columbia and Ontario, Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office, Ontario, and the Community Legal Assistance Society in Vancouver, BC. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria. He has served on several boards of community organizations including the national Canadian Mental Health Association.

Photo of Pat Wilson, a white woman with short white hair wearing a striped turtleneck. — **Pat Wilson, Treasurer**
**Patricia (Pat) Wilson** is a retired chartered accountant who is an active and committed volunteer in her community. In 1997, after many working years in public practice, industry and project management, she settled in Greater Victoria. Her passions are family, home, gardening (including urban farming), friends, neighbours, neighbourhood, and the heritage aspects of her community. She is a past chair of the Oak Bay Heritage Commission and is still an active member. She is also involved in local issues and takes an active role in municipal Council elections, densification issues, as well as the protection of green spaces and the Garry oaks.

Wendy Donawa, Director & Writer/Reviewer of “Unpacking the Poem”

Wendy Donawa spent three decades of her adult life in Barbados, where she was educated, and worked as a college instructor and museum curator. Since returning to her Victoria birthplace, she has enjoyed Planet Earth Poetry’s lively community, and her poems have appeared in poetry magazines, chapbooks, and anthologies. She has given readings at PEP, at libraries, bookstores, literary festivals, parks, and a pub! Her first poetry collection, Thin Air of the Knowable (Brick Books, 2017), was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award. Our Bodies’ Unanswered Questions (Frontenac House), is her second book.

**Barbara Pelman, Director, Newsletter Proofreader, Occasional Event Host**
**Barbara Pelman** is a retired high school English teacher, and poet. She conducts poetry workshops in her home—when possible, and is a frequent participant and assistant at Planet Earth Poetry’s Friday night venue. She has three published books of poetry: *One Stone* (Ekstasis Editions 2005), *Borrowed Rooms* (Ronsdale Press, 2008), and *Narrow Bridge* (Ronsdale Press 2017), and four chapbooks. In 2018 her glosa, “Nevertheless” won the Malahat Open Season Poetry Contest. Previously another glosa “After Winter” won the Literary Writes contest in 2005. Her poems can be found in anthologies as well as in various literary journals.

planet earth poetry Volunteer positions

(AKA The Planet Earth Poetry Bees)

**Anna Cavouras, Assistant to the Artistic Director (our inaugural Planet Earth Poetry Intern!), Social Media Team, PEP Interviews, and much more!**

Anna Cavouras’s poetry has been published by the Mississauga Writers Group and The League of Canadian Poets and in various anthologies. She is a former writer-in-residence with Firefly Creative Writing, a founding member of Alt-Minds Literary Magazine, and a graduate of SFU’s The Writer’s Studio. In 2022, Anna was long-listed for the Surrey Muse Awards for creative nonfiction and short-listed with the Federation of BC Writers contest in creative nonfiction. Her non-fiction work has also appeared in social work texts, Studio Magazine of Art and Design, and, Boneyard Soup Horror Magazine. She is currently a book reviewer with the Fat Joy podcast and an editorial assistant with Minerva Rising Press. Anna’s current projects include a collaborative project on civil disobedience in climate change protests and a speculative-fiction novel about revolutionary tattoo artists in the future. Her previous work was as a community organiser in Vancouver’s downtown East Side, advocating for food justice.

**Sharon Lee, Official PEP Posters, Occasional Event Host**
**Sharon Lee** is a school teacher and artist. She is the author of two books of poetry: *Detours: Adventures Abroad* and *Reflections at Silver Lake*. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering with Planet Earth Poetry, finding sanctuary in nature, swimming like a mermaid, and cuddling with her husband and dog.

**Rhona McAdam, YouTube Editor, Community Writing Practice Tech, Occasional Event Host**
**Rhona McAdam** has been volunteering with PEP for longer than she can remember, and hosting PEP retreats and workshops since 2017. She creates Facebook events for readings and uploads videos to PEP’s Youtube channel. She’s published 11 books; her latest poetry collection, Larder, reflects her love of food. She has an MA in food culture & communication from Slow Food’s university in Italy, and works for the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition in Victoria. https://reallygoodwriter.com

**Clare Sharpe, Webpage Creation/Editing**
**Clare Sharpe** is a literary writer, ex-journalist, and museum exhibit designer. She lives on stolen land in Saanich, BC, with her husband Greg and the ghost of an old blind cat. Her poem “Jacob’s Ladder” was runner-up in the BC Federation of Writers’ 2023 writing contest, and will appear in the BCFW’s Roots to Branches anthology this Fall/Winter. She won first prize in the Victoria Writers’ Society 2023 poetry contest, and placed third in the Vancouver Island Poetry Collective's 2023 competition. Clare was recently accepted into the Masters Creative Writing program at UBC.

**Lorne Daniel, Social Media Team (FB & IG posts), Occasional Event Host**
**Lorne Daniel** is a Canadian of Scottish and American ancestry. His poetry and non-fiction have been widely published in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. A new collection of poetry is forthcoming in September 2025. In recent years, Lorne has renewed his interest and skills through writing programs at Pacific University (Oregon), University of New Orleans, Simon Fraser University and Bemidji State University (Minnesota). Lorne is online at lornedaniel.ca and on various social media.

**Nancy Issenman, Community Writing Practice Host, Occasional Event Host**
**Nancy Issenman**, a Jewish, queer writer and artist, lives on unceded Lekwungen territory, aka Victoria. She has retirement to thank for reenergizing her love of reading and writing. Her poems have appeared in various publications, a story in *don’t tell: family secrets* (Demeter Press) and a plaque with one of her poems was recently installed in Alta Lake Park, Whistler BC, after winning the Whistler Poetry Pause prize, 2024. She has been a busy bee at PEP since the move to Russell Books.

**Ken Stengler, Russell Books Event Set-up Leader**
**Ken Stengler** began his involvement with the Planet Earth Poetry Bees about two years ago, after accompanying his writer-wife, Sarah Weaver, to a reading. He’s been a part of many circles of people, and feels enriched by the creativity, imagination, and uniqueness of the poets who are involved in PEP. The event set-up at Russell Books allows Ken to use his strength and fitness, and he enjoys meeting and interacting with entirely different folks. He's a performance cycling and workout enthusiast, and a 'beta reader' for Sarah.

**Christine Schrum, PEP Interviews, Social Media Team**
**Christine Schrum’s** essays and articles about the environment, relationships, and chronic illness have appeared in *Smithsonian, The Atlantic, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Rumpus, Grain,* and other publications. Her poetry has been published in journals like *CV2* and EVENT, and anthologies including *Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees* (2022, Caitlin Press). The recipient of a 2021 Canada Council of the Arts grant, she is working on a memoir about coming of age in the Transcendental Meditation movement.

**Andrea Scott, Social Media Team**
**Andrea Scott** is a mother, writer and high school teacher living in Victoria, B.C., the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for a variety of literary contests, and recently won the 2022 Geist Erasure Poetry contest and the 2024 Raven Chapbooks Poetry Contest.

Sandy O’Reilly, Event Photos, Russell Books Tea Coordinator

Sandy O’Reilly lives and writes in Victoria BC on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples known as the Esquimalt and Songhees nations. She has been regularly speaking her poetry at the Friday evening Planet Earth Poetry reading series for the last ten years. She has two poems published in The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! –a collection of Pandemic Poems edited by Sheila Martindale.

**Catherine St Denis, Occasional Host**
**Catherine St. Denis** (she/her) lives, writes, sings, teaches, and parents on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples. Her work recently appeared in *Rattle*, *The Malahat Review*, *Grain*, *Arc*, *Canthius* and *The Humber Literary Review*. She was shortlisted for The Far Horizons Award for Poetry, *The Fiddlehead*'s Poetry Prize, The Toronto Arts and Letters Club Poetry Award and The Foster Poetry Prize. Catherine was a finalist for PEN Canada's New Voices Award in both 2022 and 2023. She is shortlisted for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize. Her work is featured in Biblioasis' *Best Canadian Poetry 2025*.

**Nicole Moen, Occasional New Horizons Host, Writer of our Site Specific Land Acknowledgements**
**Nicole Moen** (she/her) is the winner of *Island Writer Magazine’s* 2022 poetry contest and Long Listed for the 2023 Magpie Award for Poetry. Her poetry has been published in *The Purposeful Mayonnaise,* the anthology *Worth More Standing* from Caitlin Press and as chapbook *Gathering Roots: Six Ancestral Land Acknowledgement Poems* through Woven Roots Press. Her CNF has appeared in *Focus on Women* and *Island Parent*. She lives on lək̓ʷəŋən Homelands (Victoria, BC).

**Nancy Yakimoski**, **PEP’s Poetry Lending Library at Cedar Hill Rec Centre**
**Nancy Yakimoski** is an arts educator, visual artist, and writer living and working on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. In 2017, she won *The Malahat Review’s* WordsThaw Prize for poetry; in 2023, was short-listed for the Federation of BC writer’s literary contest (creative non-fiction) and was published in *Arc* *Poetry Magazine* (Spring 2024). Her current project, which was prompted by a ghostly encounter she had one spring morning, combines imagery with multidirectional text to explore time, place and memory.

Torsten Shoenburg, Occasional Event Host

Born and raised in Germany, Torsten Schoeneberg published short stories there before immigrating to Victoria in 2016, where he has published poems in local publications such as Oratorealis. His current work in progress includes reviews of fictional books. His (real) book “Brenda Craigdarroch Doesn’t Care If You Read This Book” was published in late 2020. The collection of 21 prose poems around the quirky character Brenda has gained a cult following. His writing combines trends of current European literature with a distinct Canadian West Coast feel.