"OFFICIAL" BIOGRAPHY:

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 (two earlier chapbooks were released during her undergrad in Writing). Kyeren's poetry has been published in dozens of literary periodicals and anthologies in Canada, Australia, and the USA, and has been translated into Chinese. Work has won, placed or been shortlisted in many literary contests (most recently winning Eavesdrop Magazine's inaugural Queer Joy contest), and has been thrice longlisted for the CBC Poetry Awards, She has received three peer-reviewed grants from Canada Council for the Arts for her own work, and two jointly written grants (with Zoe Dickinson) on behalf of Planet Earth Poetry.

 

Kyeren holds an MFA in Writing, receiving the Victoria Medal for her BFA (highest GPA). She  taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, and designed a cross-genre class in short forms & performance. She is a former editor on the poetry board of Canada's iconic literary periodical, The Malahat Review, has mentored poets through the Writer’s Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, and works as a freelance literary editor, writing mentor and workshop instructor.

 

She is presently the Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetry, one of Canada's longest running reading series, now in its 30th season. In 2024 she completed Indigenous Canada through the University of Alberta in order to better serve indigenous poets who read at Planet Earth Poetry. In 2025 she was appointed Poet Laureate o Victoria BC, and began producing The Poet Laureate Podcast with the support of Haus of Owl: Creation Lab. Season two of the podcast was recently awarded a grant from Canada Council for the Arts as an audio-first publication venue. Forthcoming from Caitlin Press is a co-edited anthology of response poetry (with Zoe Dickinson): After: Poems in Dialogue, An Anthology of Canadian Response Poems. 

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Kyeren’s background is in professional dance and theatre, and she once found herself in Victoria’s Poetry Slam finals by accident. She was born in Australia to Scottish & Welsh parents, and then born as a poet in Canada. 

 

Kyeren lives and writes with gratitude on the unceded homelands of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.