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Would you benefit from a FREE POETRY EDITING SESSION?
John Barton & I will offer 4 x 25 min editing sessions
on Wednesday April 1st, 12:00pm-2:00pm
Jenna Butler and I will offer 6 x 20 min editing sessions
on Tuesday April 14th, 12:00pm-2:00pm
Please book your editing session up to 24 hours in advance, although this is offered on a first-come-first-served basis, so please book now to secure your spot.
PLEASE only book one session so as many as possible can receive this much needed service.
These editing sessions are based on the university office-hours model and will offer poets the opportunity to advance their craft by working on a single poem.
At the end of each session, we can recommend poetry books to support and inspire your work as a poet.
Please bring ONE poem of up to 1.5 pages in length, as well as any questions you have about the poem.
I'm looking forward to serving your poetry!
PLEASE NOTE: Please DO NOT send us your poem in advance. Please bring all questions to the session. As this is a free service, we can't also answer a wave of emails--thank you for your kind understanding. :)
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John Barton (https://www.john-barton.ca) is a poet, essayist, editor, and writing mentor. His thirteen collections and ten chapbooks of poetry include For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems, Lost Family, nominee for the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, Stopwatch, Compulsory Figures, and Labyrinth.
His other books include Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay-Male Poets, We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos, The Essential Douglas LePan, winner of a 2020 eLit Award, and editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2023.
Sonnets from Lost Family have been set to music and performed as Coda for the Victims at VerseFest in Ottawa in March 2023, and as Chosen Family by the Chronos Vocal Ensemble in Edmonton to settings composed by Stuart Beatch in January 2024. Chosen Family will be performed for a second time in Victoria as part of Podium (https:/ www.podium2026.ca) on May 16, 2026.
John was co-editor of Arc Poetry Magazine from 1990 to 2003, editor of The Malahat Review from 2004 to 2018, poetry editor at Signature Editions from 2006 to 2008, and has been a member of Brick Books’ editorial collective since 2010. He lives in Victoria, where was the city’s fifth poet laureate from 2019 to 2022.
Dr. Jenna Butler (she/her) is a queer disabled BIPOC writer, editor, and farmer. She is the author of six award-winning books of poetry and essays, including Revery: A Year of Bees, finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award in Nonfiction and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2023. Butler teaches creative and environmental writing for Sage Hill and the University of Victoria, serves as series editor for CrowSaid Poetry and Barbour Books at NeWest Press, and has just joined the team at Arc as their new Poetry Editor.
Kyeren Regehr is the author of Cult Life, a finalist for the 2021 ReLit Awards and The Victoria Butler Book Prize; Disassembling A Dancer winner the inaugural Raven Chapbooks contest, as well as two earlier chapbooks. Her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies in Canada and internationally, and has been translated into Chinese.
Kyeren holds an MFA in Writing, and taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria. She is a former editor on the poetry board of The Malahat Review. She is the Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetr reading series and the current Poet Laureate of Victoria. She hosts The Poet Laureate Podcast and is co-editing with Zoe Dickinson, After: Poems in Dialogue, An Anthology of Canadian Response Poems (Caitlin Press)
PAST EVENTS
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Please book your editing session with either Tracy or Kyeren (not both) 24 hours in advance--the booking page will close on Nov 14th at noon.
Tracy and Kyeren are both experienced poetry editors, with MFA's in Writing. These editing sessions are based on the university office-hours model and will offer poets the opportunity to advance their craft by working on a single poem.
Please bring a poem up to 1.5 pages in length, as well as any questions you have about the poem.
We're looking forward to serving your poetry!
This service is generously support by the CITY OF VICTORIA through the Poet Laureate initiative.
Tracy Wai de Boer (she/they) is an award-winning poet, interdisciplinary artist, and
Ph.D. candidate whose literary and visual work has been featured internationally.
Her book, Nostos, a collection of poetry and experimental photography, was published
in May with Palimpsest Press.
Tracy’s chapbook, maybe, basically, was published in 2020 with Anstruther Press 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 the Year.
Tracy was shortlisted for Poet Laureate of the City of Victoria (2025-26) and was a
resident artist at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2017 and 2023.
Kyeren Regehr is an award-winning poet and writer with a background in professional dance and theatre. She is the author of Cult Life (finalist for the ReLit Awards and The Victoria Butler Book Prize) and Disassembling A Dancer (winner of the inaugural Raven Chapbooks contest), as well as two earlier chapbooks. Her poetry has been published in Canada, Australia, and the USA, and thrice-longlisted for the CBC Poetry Awards.
Kyeren holds MFA in Writing (earning the Victoria Medal for her BFA), and is a former poetry editor at The Malahat Review. She has mentored poets through The League of Canadian Poetry and The Writer’s Union of Canada, and taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria.
Kyeren is the Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetry reading series, and is co-editing the anthology After: Poems in Dialogue with Zoe Dickinson, forthcoming with Caitlin Press. She's presently the Poet Laureate of Victoria and host of The Poet Laureate Podcast.