Free Verse seeks to bring the voices of incarcerated writers to the Vancouver community through a public presentation of their writing in an effort to expand the literary community, build empathy, and leverage the power of storytelling to instigate change. Work is from writers in Mission Medium (men) and Fraser Valley (women) Institutions. Free Verse is a project of Pandora’s Collective. Supported by the City of Vancouver’s Communities and Artists Shifting Culture (CASC) and UBC PRE Fund..
Location: Room C440, UBC Robson Square
Sponsored by: Pandora’s Collective, The City of Vancouver and UBC Library
Moderator: Kaile Shilling
Readers: Johnny Trinh | Sophea Heang | Elee Kraljii Gardner
About The Host
Kaile Shilling
Kaile is the Free Verse Program Director for Pandora's Collective: she teaches creative writing in prisons because she believes stories can heal. A graduate of The Writers Studio, her writing’s appeared in Pulp Literature, she’s been longlisted for Ploughshares Emerging Writer Contest and received an Honorable Mention for the Magpie Award for Poetry. Star Trek TNG is comfort viewing because she believes the future will be awesome and will include aliens speaking in poetry. She lives on the unceded lands of the Coast Salish people.
About The Readers
Johnny D Trinh
Johnny D Trinh is a community-engaged artist with practices in spoken word, theatre, and culinary arts. Johnny’s research interests are in autoethnography, and the cultivation of identity through food, story, and memory making. Trinh holds an MFA: Interdisciplinary Studies, and holds leadership roles at: Vancouver Poetry House, Stage to Page Performance Society, and Historic Joy Kogawa House. “It takes a community to build an artist ... whether we are nurtured by it, or resist against it.”
Sophea Heang
Sophea (Sophie) Heang is a second-generation Cambodian-Canadian spoken word poet and writer. She’s completing her first book, Remember me in Stillness. She’s also co-founder of Angkor Harvest, a Cambodian food purveyor. Sophea’s poem, Inside Heartwood will be published in Canadian Literature in 2026, in the special issue 261, Swirling into a Field of Life: Works in Conversation with Y-Dang Troeung. Sophea loves bringing people together from all different walks of life through arts and culture programming, including the following BC Culture Days events, she co-produced: Invoking Memory: https://culturedays.ca/en/events/904922c8-deb7-4c5c-9a5a-b4ee210d15bf We Are All Storytellers: https://culturedays.ca/en/events/87cca77b-b9a5-491c-a8c5-d86632ddc6b3 The latest arts and culture event, Sophea co-produced is, Roots of Compassion, -a commemoration of the 50th year anniversary of the Cambodian genocide and celebration of Cambodian resilience, memory and artistry. Roots of Compassion: https://www.richmond-news.com/in-the-community/cambodian-culture-event-richmond-bc-draws-sell-out-crowd-10916076#google_vignette
Elee Kraljii Gardiner
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is an author, editor, and creative mentor living in Vancouver, Canada. She is the author of two poetry books, Trauma Head, and serpentine loop. She is also editor of the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, and visual artists, Elee is currently collaborating with nature via a series of durational art installations that investigate the law of thermodynamics and cultural ideas regarding the passing of time. Elee directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, an online program pairing authors with mentors, and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver. eleekg.com
