Featured Writer: Kyeren Regehr
On creating space to write and writing advice.
Welcome to Women Writing! This past weekend I attended the Historical Quill Conference, an online event out of the U.K. It was a full three days of sessions about all things historical fiction and I’ve honestly never seen so many historical fiction writers in one place. It was lovely to connect with some fellow Canadians, as well as authors from around the world. Often, in a group of writers, I’m the only one who focusses on historical fiction, so it was delightful to attend sessions solely focussed on the issues that arise while writing this genre and all of its interesting subgenres. There were many takeaways, but I particularly loved Emma Darwin’s discussion of the contract between the reader and the writer, the importance of research, and the specificity of authentic details to create the readers’ “vivid and continuous dream.”
Also, Dinah Laprairie wrote an excellent post about our upcoming Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreat (May 23-25, 2025, French River, ON). Check it out here.
Lastly, I was on Suzy Vadori’s podcast, Show, Don’t Tell. You can listen here. Plus, Suzy will be on this week’s Women Writing podcast. You’ll want to watch for that one.
About the author…
Kyeren Regehr’s books are Cult Life (finalist for the 2021 ReLit Awards and The Victoria Butler Book Prize) and Disassembling A Dancer (winner of the inaugural Raven Chapbooks contest). Her poetry has also been published in two other chapbooks, as well as 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. Her work has been thrice-longlisted for the CBC Poetry Awards, placed or shortlisted in over two dozen contests, and twice awarded grants from Canada Council for the Arts. Kyeren has a background in theatre and dance and she once found herself in the Victoria Poetry Slam finals by accident. She served as an editor on the poetry board of The Malahat Review, and is currently the Artistic Director of Planet Earth Poetry. Kyeren lives and writes on the unceded homelands of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.
On a writing routine …
I’ve always written in the cracks of time—I began publishing work in the second year of my BFA in Writing, and I’d recently given birth to my second child, so it was always a choice between writing and sleep. And now, homeschooling a 17-year-old, and running Planet Earth Poetry reading series, and serving editing clients and writing mentees, it’s honestly not much different. I have no idea what my best time to write is (please see next question for an explanation).
“Your voice deserves space and there are readers who want to hear it.”
On writing spaces …
I write/have written at my cluttered utterly un-Zen editing desk next to my wall of shifting post-it notes (this space least of all), on my meditation cushion staring out the window at the Garry Oaks in my backyard, on my bed with the neighbour’s wretched floodlight pouring through the window behind me, at my dining room table when the family’s (blissfully) out, in the darkened hallway-come-library between all our bedrooms while everyone sleeps, on the dilapidated side-of-the road swinging chair living in our yard, all over campus at UVic (every flowering garden, every floor of the library, the chapel, cinema café, at the fountain, next to CFUV radio in the SUB, cross-legged on the linoleum outside many classrooms, in the old office of The Malahat Review), caffeinated and headphoned in coffee shops all over town, on rocks overlooking the ocean (for years on rocks between Gonzales Beach and Ross Bay Beach), on the park bench at the observatory in Fairfield, in Beacon Hill Park (mostly at the playground keeping-one-eye-on-child, but also the turtle pond, the sundial garden, the petting zoo, the grassy lookout), in the car while my partner drives, in the carpark of the Victoria Conservatory of Music while my daughter sings, in the corners of most of Victoria’s public libraries—I finished writing Cult Life amongst the exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (often cross-legged on the floor beneath the art, or spreading and reordering the manuscript across the length of their huge table in a back room—I paid for a one-year subscription and creatively used it). Basically, anywhere, anytime, whenever I get ten minutes or more. It’s an ongoing mission to squeeze in what I love the most—creativity is in my mind/heart, and has nothing to do with a perfect space or a dreamy archetypal writing set-up.
On writing communities …
I’m blessed to have a tiny poetry group of two—it’s just me and John Barton, who’s been my mentor and poetry-angel since I interned and then later served as a poetry board editor at The Malahat Review. We did meet in a larger group for a time—named Sunroom Poets after the meeting location overlooking Dallas Road—but the pandemic disbanded us. Saving illness or out-of-town trips, John and I meet every few weeks, and he’s kept me writing through periods when I’d have otherwise given up, or periods when I was writing quite poorly, or during very hard times, like when we were evicted and desperately searching for a place to live, or when my mother passed. A lot of my poetry is in the world because I had to write something for a meeting with John. Bless him a thousand times. I discovered Planet Earth Poetry in 2008. I first arrived at the reading series to read at the open mic when founder, Wendy Morton (force of nature), was still running it. My first-year poetry teacher told me about it— Carla Funk (Victoria’s Poet Laureate at the time)—and I think I was the only one in my class who took her advice and read at the open mic. It became my poetry incubator—every week poets reading from new work, poets from all over Canada, poets with first collections, spoken-word poets, Governor General’s Award-winners… and the open mic was incredible (and still is). Yvonne Blomer invited me as a featured reader during my undergrad, and then I read again from both Cult Life and Disassembling a Dancer. I’ve been a part of this community, on-again-off-again, for nearly twenty years, and now serve as it’s Artistic Director—it still inspires me and fills me with poetry. Victoria is so very fortunate to have Planet Earth Poetry—it’s an incredibly rich, diverse and welcoming community.
On challenges …
Like so many families, we live in unstable housing and Victoria’s steep rent is often a monthly battle. I homeschool our teen and serve a wonderful menagerie of writing clients and mentees, editing manuscripts, offering workshops, etc., and also tackle almost all the household duties and errands (my partner works six 12-hour shifts a week on the frontlines of the housing crisis). I also run the 29-year-old iconic literary reading series—Planet Earth Poetry—curating/hosting five+ live events each month, coordinating over a dozen volunteers, answering to a board of directors, and much more. I love all of it (except dishes and laundry), but it leaves scraps of time for my own self care, let alone my writing—the challenge in the creative arts (and mothers) is often working wages. Sometimes I find myself managing feelings of frustration and disappointment when faced with my severe lack of personal writing time. Or I’m deathly-tired, brewing coffee when I swore off it a week ago, because I’ve written into the wee hours again. O for bygone times when poets had benefactors and could write at leisure!
On the best writing advice …
I’ve been the fortunate recipient of much brilliant advice—I was Lorna Crozier’s last MFA student and also worked with Tim Lilburn during my undergrad and MFA, and many other exceptional writers. All of them prescribed other pieces of writing as remedies for various problems I encountered—that was consistent advice from everyone, and I offer the same to my mentees. Obviously reading improves our writing, but reading for solutions, reading with a writer’s eye, reading to understand craft/technique/structure/voice construction… this is key. Steven Price once prescribed Zbigniew Herbert for a prose poem issue I was having, and so I drove to Munro’s Books and I stood at the poetry shelves reading chunks of Herbert’s Collected, and although could not afford it, I bought it—not only did it solve my issue as my mentor promised, it significantly and permanently deepened my prose poetry.
Fiction writer, Lorna Jackson, once made me cut 1,000 words out of a 4,000-word short story and that was a pivotal exercise that changed my writing forever. It wasn’t just killing the proverbial darlings (and I’d just read Elliot’s Unity of Effect, so that helped me navigate what wasn’t serving the piece as a whole), but it was about finding the most economical way to say what I wanted to say right down to the minutia. It also changed the way I edited my peer’s work, and more or less began my career as a creative editor. Syliva Legris worked with me on a long prose-poem sequence for Grain Magazine—I would have been in the 3rd year of my BFA—and she took my phrase “she ran barefoot like a lunatic..” and suggested “she ran lunatic-barefoot…”—that permanently flipped a switch in my brain.
On the worst writing advice …
I’ve finished dozens of university workshops with all sorts of half-assed post-partying peer-advice, but one student used to write “I don’t know this word” and “I don’t understand these terms”—I was a research-junkie, often including obscure pieces of language from the subjects I was writing about. It annoyed me that this person though if they didn’t get it, I should edit it out—why wouldn’t they just google what they didn’t know? I decided then and there that my ideal readers were people who’d want to sleuth the unknown, or who were able to flow with sounds/connotations that unfamiliar words carried and delight in them regardless. Don’t dumb down your work for anyone else—that’s my advice.
On advice from personal experiences …
Advocate for your creative practice, for your right to write. Get inspired by other brilliant woman writers. Follow Substack pages (like this one!) and blogs, podcasts, etc., that offer you permission as a woman to do what it is you love. Your voice deserves space and there are readers who want to hear it. Find and pay good editors—not proof readers, not copy editors, but good creative editors who feel they can serve YOUR work and lift your writing to a higher place. Form writing groups, reach out to other writers and ask to join their groups—find your people. Keep writing.
On a recent publication …
I’m working on a hybrid quasi-narrative in poetry and prose that explores the land-based spiritual/magical traditions of my ancestry and weaves in the legends from the French and English Arthurian cycles. I guess it’s a hero’s journey, but it’s also the journey of the inner anti-hero that shadows every human. A three-page prose piece from this work was recently published by Prairie Fire in the first of their two 50 Over 50 special edition issues (I’m so grateful they liked it—I had no idea if it was any good, and was afraid it was far too fringy and weird). My last/latest book is Cult Life (presently a front-facing “Staff Pick” at Munro’s Books!), and I’m next reading from it at Susan Sanford Blade’s: Wild Prose Reading Series. Susan curated a spicy CULT LIT event in Victoria on Jan 30th, and there’ll also be readings from Carly Butler and Sonja Larsen, along with a panel discussion.
Kyeren’s online spaces …
📚 Upcoming offerings …
Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreat: Spring Getaway
Join us for a weekend getaway at The Lodge at Pine Cove in beautiful French River, Ontario to reconnect with yourself and your writing, and make connections with a small group of fellow writers. What a wonderful way to celebrate the spring by rekindling your personal creativity and sparking your ideas. Dinah Laprairie and I can’t wait to welcome you. Learn more and register here. Please note that spaces are limited.
Women Writing Circle
The Women Writing Circle will meets on the second and last Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST. This offering is for paid subscribers. You can learn more about the benefits of subscribing here. I’m looking forward to creating a magical writing community with you, and getting some pages written in 2025.
Spring Group Book Coaching
Join my 8-week Spring Group Book Coaching . This session is ideal for individuals who have an idea for a novel or memoir and need guidance to get started, or who have a draft and need a plan for revision. You will receive a weekly group book coaching session and individual feedback every week on submissions, as well as weekly goal setting. This is a hands-on, interactive, and personalized coaching program that will help you:
Clarify your book idea and goals
Develop your ideas and hone in on your point
Participate in craft exercises and discussion
Create a plan to move your project forward
Get honest and compassionate feedback from me and your peers
Stay motivated and accountable to your deadlines
Find the joy in your writing practice
Happy writing!
There are many things I took away with me from Kyeren Regehr's profile. Here are the top 3:
1. Writing...in the cracks of time (Absolutely!)
2. reading for solutions...reading with a writer's eye (I am learning to do this!)
3. write for readers...who'd want to sleuth the unknown (Yes!!!!)
I love these 3 pieces of advice—wisdom that I try to learn every single day. Thank you Kyeren!