Two poets attuned to nature and language examine the forest, its role in our lives and our impact on it. In sometimes, forest, Elee Kraljii Gardiner explores the woods as mirror, companion and adversary, while in hiking beyond, bronwyn preece charts a personal and courageous journey through external and internal landscapes shaped by movement and attention. This event is moderated by Megan Cole.
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is a frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, sound and visual artists. She is the author of the poetry books sometimes, forest, Trauma Head, and serpentine loop and editor of the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (with John Asfour) as well as nine anthologies from Thursdays Writing Collective, a program she founded with Downtown Eastside writers in 2008. Elee holds an MA in Hispanic Literature from University of British Columbia and an MFA in Poetry from Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the recipient of the Cogswell Award for Literary Excellence, Lina Chartrand Award for Social Justice and the Pandora’s Collective BC Writer Mentor Award. Her writing has been a finalist for the Souster Award, Kroetsch Award, bpNichol Chapbook Award, Best of the Net, City of Vancouver Book Award and in the US for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize and Montaigne Medal. Elee co-hosts the Whole Cloth reading series at University of British Columbia’s Green College with Dr. Bronwen Tate and also directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, an online international program pairing authors with mentors. She is the seventh Poet Laureate of Vancouver.
bronwyn preece is honoured to have the privilege of living on the unceded traditional territories of the L̓il̓wat7úl and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw Peoples in Whistler, BC. This awareness brings with it many levels of responsibility, humbleness, transparency and collaborative possibilities. She is a site-sensitive poetic-renegade and multi-disciplinary, community-engaged arts practitioner. She holds a PhD in Performance, along with a MA and BFA in Applied Theatre. She has taught and performed internationally. Her publications range from place-based children’s books, articles to artistic academic chapters. In addition to hiking beyond she is the author of knee deep in high water : riding the Muskwa-Kechika, expedition poems; Sea to Sky Alphabet; Gulf Islands Alphabet and the forthcoming Olive and Jasper, Canadian Rockies Alphabet and My Happy Hiking Trails, all with Simply Read Books. All of her artistic and educational work aims towards cultivating place-based awarenesses and small acts of reconciliatory repair. bronwyn is an avid, solo, backcountry backpacker and hiker who writes on the trail. She has the word ‘gratitude’ tattooed on her arm.
https://writersunion.ca/member/bronwyn-preece
Megan Cole is an artist of too many projects. She’s an amateur drummer, dabbler in alternative photography, fibre artist, and writer. She believes she has one of the best jobs as the Executive Director for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Her role includes hosting and producing a weekly podcast, and she’s interviewed authors such as Billy-Ray Belcourt, Michelle Good, Joel Bakan, and more. Megan lives in qathet on the territory of the Tla’amin Nation.
https://megancolewriter.com/my-work/
