Talking to Strangers: Rhea Tregebov in Conversation with Sheryda Warrener

In this special event, Rhea Tregebov and Sheryda Warrener will discuss Tregebov’s latest collection of poetry, Talking to Strangers. The Montreal Review of Books describes the eponymous strangers as “a motley crew—rambling hippies, weeping widows, drunkards, IDF soldiers—some more immediately sympathetic than others.” Warrener and Tregebov will discuss the poems’ interrogation of the human connections established and enriched by such “weak connections,” as well as the degree to which they assert that we are often strangers to ourselves.

Rhea Tregebov is the acclaimed author of eight collections of poetry. Her most recent, Talking to Strangers, was published by Signal Editions/Véhicule Press in April 2024. She has published two award-winning novels, Rue des Rosiers (2019) and The Knife Sharpener’s Bell (2009). Tregebov served as Chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada from 2021 to 2023. Born in Saskatoon and raised in Winnipeg, she now lives and writes in Vancouver, where she is Associate Professor Emerita at the School of Creative Writing at UBC.

Sheryda Warrener is a poet and award-winning teacher. She is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently, Test Piece (Coach House Books, 2022), which was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She is a lecturer in poetry in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, and creator of The Provocation Collection, a series of material prompts for writers designed in collaboration with artists