Available for select readings, panel discussions, workshops, lectures, and writing festivals.
Queries: ZG Stories, Anvil Press.
Readings & Events
forest ecology/a system of weather: a double book welcome party!
2026/06/22June 22, 2026, 18-21h
Bar Milton-Parc, (Coop BMP)
3714 Ave.Parc, Montreal
18-21h
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forest ecology/a system of weather: a double book welcome party!
Join Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Astrida Neimanis and guests and friends in launching
sometimes, forest from Talonbooks by Elee
and
How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change from Bloomsbury by Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Mae Hamilton
with guests Anne Bourne, Lindsay Kelley, Krusa Neimligers
Open mic! Snacks! Cavorting! All welcome!
Poetry Night with Three Poetry Ambassadors
2026/05/12May 12, 2026 7:00 PM
Poetry Night
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (6450 Deer Lake Ave, Burnaby, BC)
May 12, 2026
7:00 PM
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Poetry Night with Three Poetry Ambassadors
A special night–a reading with the three poetry ambassadors who have been guiding and sharing their skills with me in the poet laureateship. Not only are they wonderful, connected community members but each is a fine poet with a singular voice.
Join us for an evening of poetry!
The Readers:
Born and raised in the Manila, Marc Perez is the author of Domus (Anstruther Press, 2025) and Dayo (Brick Books, 2024), recepient of the 2025 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. He currently serves as a Poetry Ambassador with Vancouver Poet Laureate, Elee Kraljii Gardiner. He is a Deer Lake Artist in Residence from April-May 2026. In his free time, he likes to wander with his camera to take portraits of strangers and capture fleeting moments around the city.
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is a frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, sound and visual artists. She is the author of three poetry collections: sometimes, forest from Talonbooks, Trauma Head and serpentine loop from Anvil Press as well as the editor of two essay collections Against Death: 35 Essays on Living (Anvil Press) and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with John Asfour from Arsenal Pulp Press. She directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver, learning in community via the sound-based legacy project Here, Hearing.
Kevin Spenst (he/him) is the author of four full-length books of poetry and 19 chapbooks. An assortment of his lyric essays, interviews with his neighbours, and personal accounts from others make up the collection Stanley Park Manor: a Collective History, out with Anvil Press in the fall of 2026. He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, occasionally co-hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio, and is one of the poetry ambassadors for Vancouver’s 2025-2027 Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner. He is one of the Poetry Mentors at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory where he cohabitates with the one and only Cheryl Rossi.
Johnny Trinh loves making noise, making food, and feasting with people. Trinh has a long practice in spoken word poetry, theatre making, and community-engaged culinary art. Johnny’s work is focused on celebrating and unpacking the way we tell our stories and how we find identity and community through storytelling. Johnny is the artistic director for Vancouver Poetry House, interim executive director for Historic Joy Kogawa House, and founder of Stage to Page Performance Society. Trinh is also a resident artist with the City of Vancouver creating programs that bring multicultural and multigenerational communities together to share stories and celebrate cultural foods. “It takes a community to build an artist, whether we are nurtured by it… or resist against it.” johnnydavidtrinh.com
Forest Weathering: A Double Book Welcome with Astrida Neimanis and Elee Kraljii Gardiner
2026/05/07Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6pm-7:30pm
VPL Main Branch, 350 West Georgia St.
Grand Staircase, 8th floor
6pm-7:30pm
*beware the uncertain possibility of EVENT PARKING which is very expensive. Plan accordingly!
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Forest Weathering: A Double Book Welcome with Astrida Neimanis and Elee Kraljii Gardiner
You are invited to be part of a gathering-reading-experience marking the release of two books concerned with climate justice and community! How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change by Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Mae Hamilton from Bloomsbury and sometimes, forest by Elee Kraljii Gardiner from Talonbooks.
Free, accessible, all welcome!
Please RVSP on the VPL Main’s eventbrite so we can plan accurately!
Please RVSP on the VPL Main’s eventbrite so we can plan accurately!
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is a frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, sound and visual artists. She is the author of three poetry collections: sometimes, forest from Talonbooks, Trauma Head and serpentine loop from Anvil Press as well as the editor of two essay collections Against Death: 35 Essays on Living (Anvil Press) and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with John Asfour from Arsenal Pulp Press. She directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver.
Astrida Neimanis writes about water, weather and bodies, often in collaboration with artists, scientists, and other community members. She is author of Bodies of Water (2017), and co-editor of the essay collections Thinking with Water (2013) and Hacking the Anthropocene! (2022). She is currently Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities at UBC Okanagan on unceded syilx territories in Kelowna, BC, and Director of the FEELed Lab, a community-engaged creative research hub.
Accessibility Information
VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at programs@vpl.ca.
There will be limited seating available.
Standing room is ample.
The Grand Staircase is an open indoor area, that may be busy during the performance.
We will reserve a section of chairs for people with mobility needs. There will also be spaces for wheelchairs and mobility devices.
For more information on physical access, view the Accessibility information on the Central Library page.
Standing room is ample.
The Grand Staircase is an open indoor area, that may be busy during the performance.
We will reserve a section of chairs for people with mobility needs. There will also be spaces for wheelchairs and mobility devices.
For more information on physical access, view the Accessibility information on the Central Library page.
Poetry, Art and All the Brightness in-between: Jane’s Walk in Mount Pleasant
2026/05/02May 2, 2026, 1pm-2:30pm
Starting Place: “THIS Gallery” (back alley entrance, 108 E Broadway)
Walk leader KEVIN SPENST will be wearing a “Make Money With Poetry” t-shirt
Ending Location: Dude Chillin’ Park (where the dude rests)
Duration: 120 mins
Accessibility: Busy sidewalks, Breaks offered along the way, Family-friendly, Bicycles welcome, Pet-friendly
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Poetry, Art and All the Brightness in-between: Jane’s Walk in Mount Pleasant
About the walk: On our annual Jane’s Walk through Mount Pleasant, we’ll be looking and listening with the assistance (and insistence!) of poetry. While the bulk of the walk will take us through several art galleries, poetry will be read by some of Vancouver’s most engaging poets who will explore art on and off the page in the broadest sense possible. How much is a poem like a piece of art? What is the relationship between visual art and literary arts? How can poetry help us observe our world more closely? Join us to hear poetry and the many types of connections it fosters.
Acknowledging that Mount Pleasant is on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, it’s important to be mindful of this deeper sense of history and the ways it shapes our current world. Colonial violence that occurred in the past has a very real impact on the present and we encourage you to learn about this through articles such as Christopher Cheung’s “Snapshots of Vancouver’s Many Mount Pleasants” at the Tyee, which touches upon some of this history, or a more embodied experience can be found through “Land Acknowledgement (For Mount Pleasant)” at https://thescore.ubc.ca/ Some of this will be drawn upon for the beginning of our walk.
Poetry offers the potential for fusion and vision. Come join us for our 2-hour walk to see what you think and feel!
About the walk leaders:
Kevin Spent (organizer) is keen to connect with neighbours and strangers, a chatty way of being which often fuels his writing. He’s the author of four full-length books of poetry and 19 small books of poetry (chapbooks!) An assortment of my lyric essays, interviews with neighbours, and personal accounts from others make up Stanley Park Manor: a Collective History, out with Anvil Press in 2026. This will be his fifth year leading a poetry-themed Jane’s Walk.
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the author of three poetry collections, most recently sometimes, forest from Talonbooks as well as editor of two anthologies. A frequent collaborator, she works across disciplines and administers the Warland Award for hybrid literature. She also directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver.
Laura Farina is the author of two books of poetry, This Woman Alphabetical and Some Talk of Being Human, as well as the picture book This is the Path the Wolf Took. Her third poetry collection, Behold!, is forthcoming from Coach House Books. Laura is the recipient of the Archibald Lampman Award, and has been long-listed for both the Relit Award and the CBC Poetry Prize. She’s very temporarily the associate director of the Writer’s Studio at SFU.
Alyssa Sy de Jesus is an avid indoor-hiker who is very grateful to be walking with fellow lovers of art and words. A museum-worker by day, she is also a poet of in search of the worded-artefacts of her family’s five-generation settlement in the Philippines from China, and eventual migration to Canada. Her work has been featured in: Chinatown Stories, Living Hyphen, Ginger and Smoke, Liars of Orpheus, and the Jade Music Festival. She was co-editor of de-comp Journal’s “Translate Me Not” issue. She is a proud graduate of the SFU Writers Studio.
Lauren Peat is a writer, lyricist, and translator from French. Her debut poetry chapbook, Future Tense, was published by Baseline Press in 2024, and her lyric prose has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her writing appears in local city buses and international magazines, and her many collaborations with composers are featured in the repertoires of acclaimed vocal ensembles across Turtle Island. In 2025, she served as Poet-in-Residence of Enabling Arts, a multidisciplinary creative space in the Downtown Eastside. Beyond the page, she co-organizes the Dead Poets Reading Series and facilitates low-barrier creative writing workshops throughout the city. She lives in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Learn more at laurenpeatwrites.com.
Hope Lauterbach is a Zambian Canadian writer and poet, founder of the Unbound Reading Series and graduate of The Writer’s Studio at SFU. Hope’s work has been commissioned for the Fraser Valley Literary Festival, and appears in Contemporary Verse 2, emerge 21 and Pearls. Hope currently resides in that place between sleep and awake.
RC Weslowski is a spoken word poet and storyteller, a clown performer, a playwright, workshop facilitator, event MC and a professional voice over artist. RC has performed at poetry and spoken word festivals around North America and Europe doing featuring presentations and leading performance/writing workshops.
How to identify the walk leader: Walk leader will be wearing a “Make Money With Poetry” t-shirt
Travel Tips: There is some parking by THIS gallery but cycling via 10th would be best.
Free, all welcome, no registration required
Talonbooks Spring Launch
2026/05/01May 1, 2026 Doors at 7 p.m.
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Talonbooks Spring Launch
Join us at the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall for the launch of the Talonbooks spring 2026 titles! Come help us celebrate this season’s authors and books. Here’s the lineup! It’s going to be an amazing evening.
Taryn Hubbard will read from Beautiful Unknown Future
Jenn Ashton (attending digitally) will read from Growing My Way Home
George Bowering (attending digitally) will read from Pearl
Jónína Kirton will read from Save Your Prayers – Send Money
Elee Kraljii Gardiner will read from sometimes, forest
Nicole Raziya Fong will read from SUBTEXT and
Danielle LaFrance will read from Verbal Violence!
The launch will be hosted by the author of Future Works, Jeff Derksen!
A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube page. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Hope to see you there!
Talonbooks Spring Launch
Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall
1955 McLean Ave, Vancouver, BC
May 1, 2026
Doors at 7 p.m., readings begin at 7:30 p.m. PDT
Un-Closing Captions: possibilities for descriptive text
2026/04/29Wednesday, April 29, 2026 @ 2:30 pm at Chill-X Studios
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Un-Closing Captions: possibilities for descriptive text
Un-Closing Captions: possibilities for descriptive text
Join us for a workshop in the Verses Festival!
Closed captions are an important accessibility feature for many viewers. But, as artist Christine Sun Kim points out, descriptive subtitles for the musical soundtrack in videos often default to something unspecific such as [MUSIC PLAYING]. How can we, as poets, explode the form of the subtitle and open meaning for people who rely on captions? In this participatory, creative, and generative workshop facilitated by Vancouver Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Citizen Poets Elana Brief and Dani Rodriguez, we will experiment with creating closed captions that transmit mood and flavour and perhaps open new pathways into poetic practice. We will play with associative language, surrealism, and other tactics as we respond to samples of live acoustic fiddle and recorded sound. This playful and positive workshop is for anyone curious and willing to share knowledge.
Forest/Weather: A Climate Justice Walkshop
2026/04/11Saturday, April 11, 2026, 11:30am-1pm
UBC, Lasserre Building, 6333 Memorial Rd, Room 105
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Forest/Weather: A Climate Justice Walkshop
Join us on a WALKSHOP at Smoke Forecast, a one-day gathering that foregrounds artistic, embodied and community-engaged practices to approach fire and climate justice, at the Belkin Gallery at UBC. Forest/Weather: A Climate Justice Walkshop will take place at 11:30am with facilitators Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Astrida Neimanis, χʷəy̓χʷiq̓tən/ Audrey Siegl and Ruby Singh. Please dress for the weather; while the walk will be slow and gentle, it will be outdoors. More info here.
Pandora’s Collective Presents TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
2026/01/21Wed, January 21, 2026, 6:00 - 7:50 pm
Britannia Library, 1661 Napier St, Vancouver, BC
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Pandora’s Collective Presents TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON
Hosted by: Daniela Elza and Natasha Boskic, Pandora’s Collective & Britannia Library
Readings by three poets laureate: Kyeren Regehr (Victoria),
Elee Kraljii Gardiner (Vancouver), and Janet Kvammen (New Westminster). Join us for open mic!
Here, Hearing: an Evening with Citizen Poets
2026/01/13January 13, 2026, 6pm-8pm
Vancouver Public Library, Main, 350 Georgia St.
The Montalbano Theatre is located on the 8th floor of the VPL Main branch and is accessible.
*Note: if you or your guests are coming by car, be aware that sometimes EVENT PARKING is in effect if the arenas are in use—that’s a flat rate of $35 in parking lots. Street parking can be $$ and difficult during these times. We do not know if this evening will be under Event Parking restrictions.
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Here, Hearing: an Evening with Citizen Poets
Vancouver Poet laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner welcomes you to an evening of reportage and readings from seven Citizen Poets who did Here, Hearing residencies and brought poetry into public venues. Learn what they did, where they worked, and what they heard from the city and its citizens. As a record of the first year of this laureate legacy project we’re launching the Here, Hearing playlist, a collection of audio files from the year of poetry.
Here is a list of our readers and the host organizations that generously provided space for them to write:
Adolfo Bermúdez, El Mashup Collective
Cabil, The Canadian Chinese Museum
Dani Rodríguez Chevalier, Upstart & Crow
Elana Brief, Upstart & Crow
Fiona Glen, UBC Farm
Karen Parrish, SFU’s Samuel and Frances Belzberg Library
Lauren Peat, Enabling Arts
Cabil, The Canadian Chinese Museum
Dani Rodríguez Chevalier, Upstart & Crow
Elana Brief, Upstart & Crow
Fiona Glen, UBC Farm
Karen Parrish, SFU’s Samuel and Frances Belzberg Library
Lauren Peat, Enabling Arts
With Poetry Ambassadors Kevin Spenst, Marc Perez, and Johnny D. Trinh!
Come learn how you can be part of 2026’s Here, Hearing project.
(The invitation to apply will be posted in February)
Sign up to receive notice of events at versevancouver.ca
(The invitation to apply will be posted in February)
Sign up to receive notice of events at versevancouver.ca
Elee Kraljii Gardiner holds the Vancouver Poet Laureateship for three years as a community-minded position practiced within the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation). It is coordinated and administered by City of Vancouver, Writers Fest, and VPL
open two
2025/12/18Thurs, December 18, 2025, 8pm
Tickets and info about the venue here.
KW Studios is an accessible venue. Folks in need of an elevator can access one through the lobby entrance. Accessible bathrooms are available downstairs. KW events are both auditory and visual. Sound can be loud, but earplugs can be provided free of charge. Lighting is generally lower but can be adjusted and raised to accommodate people who need brighter venues.
KW events are NOTAFLOF (No one turn away for lack of funds) . NOTAFLOF tickets are of limited capacity. Please consider your financial need relative to folks in the DTES community where we reside before asking to pay less. We practice the policy NOTAFLOF specifically to allow access to folks negatively impacted by gentrification projects within the DTES community. If you are a student or low income worker, please consider saving up for the next show as the artists and KW staff are also low income workers.
Located 111 West Hastings Street Vancouver. Look for the KW sign off Hastings Street for the entrance.
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open two
Allison Lang’s series: open two.
A two performance evening at KW Studios!
“Katy Perry in Space” by Nathan Coburn and Elle of Paper Rabbits
This a dance piece exploring questions of our relationship to each other, the world, and the cosmos. We are fascinated by astrophysics principles, the vast and ever expanding spacetime of the universe, and black holes. Anything can become a black hole if it is compressed enough. Theoretically, even the earth could become a black hole if it were compressed to the size of a gumball.
The second half of the program features a cocreational text score with Elee Kraljii Gardiner and c.o.valenza.
Social milling about afterwards!
Pandora’s Collective: A Night for Giving: A Poetry Reading and Fundraiser
2025/12/17December 17, 2025
Fraserview Cemetery, 5445 Fraser Street, Vancouver
Accessible by bus at 41st/Fraser
Small parking lot available near the celebration of life building within the cemetery.
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Pandora’s Collective: A Night for Giving: A Poetry Reading and Fundraiser
Host: Lorraine White-Wilkinson Poets: Kevin Spenst, Junie Désil, Rina Garcia Chua and guests Fiona Tinwei Lam and Elee Kraljii Gardiner
The Fundraiser
Since 2006 Pandora’s Collective has run a fundraiser for the youth and their families in need from Musqueam over the holiday season. That is nearly 20 years. For over 10 years Executive Director Dr. Bonnie Nish worked with Mary Roberts to make this happen. Sadly in 2016 Mary passed away. Mary was an Auntie to all the children she supported through her work and in her community. It is an honour to now be working with her granddaughter Jocelyn to make this happen. Mary would be so proud of her. .
From Jocelyn “ The families on the list truly appreciate everything they receive, and I am always forever grateful for what you and Grandma Mary have started and continued over all these years.”
Thank you to this community for the incredible support you have shown over the years. Together, you have helped ensure that countless children experience a joyful Christmas they might not otherwise have had. We are hopeful that—with your generosity—we can make that happen again this year.
We are excited to be returning with a wonderful lineup of poets who will be sharing their time, talent, and words. Please join us with open hearts—and be ready to have yours touched in return. We are grateful to Mountain View Cemetery for the use of their beautiful Celebration Hall.
This year we are gratefully accepting both cash and gift donations, all of which go directly to the families we serve. If you would like to contribute a new unwrapped gift, please see the list below. A donation box will also be located at the entrance for convenience.
Age. Size
12 Boy Mens
9 Boy unknown
6 Boy unknown
12 Boy Mens large(shirt pants) 8shoe
11 Girl Womens small (shirt pants)6-7shoe
11 girl Womens large (shirt pants)9.5 shoe size
8 BOY Youth largh (shirt pants)4 shoe
4 girl 6/7 shirt and pants10c shoe
1 Girl 18/24 moth size 5 diapers
16 Boy Mens Large head to toe
9 Boy Big kid Kids xl 12/14
7 Boy Kid 10-12 shirt pants feet size1
13 boy Mens large
7 Girl Shirts6/7pants medium small socks
10 Boy Xl kids shirts and pants 10/14 socks
2 Boy 3t head to toe
3 BOY 5t head to toe
1MONTH and 2MONTH DIAPERS,WIPES
16 girl Ladys Shirts long sleaves medium, Sweater lg and socks lg (Tights)
And please, remember to support the poets who make this evening possible.
If you cannot be at the event please consider sending a cash donation through Pandora’s website here.
Planet Earth Poetry with Four BC Poets Laureates
2025/11/28Friday, November 28, 2025, 7:30pm
Russell Books, 747 Fort St, Victoria
7pm sign up for open mic
7:30pm start
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Planet Earth Poetry with Four BC Poets Laureates
Four BC Poets Laureates read at Canada’s longest running reading series, Planet Earth Poetry. Join Elee Kraljii Gardiner (Vancouver), Neil Surkan (Nanaimo), Janet Kvammen (New Westminster) and Kyeren Regehr (Victoria). Open mic sign up at 7pm!
A sister event will be held in Vancouver with Twisted Poets on January 21, 2026