Lunch Poems presents Stephen Collis and Renée Sarojini Saklikar (In Person)

Lunch Poems at SFU is a unique opportunity to celebrate poetry and is held the third Wednesday of every month, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
About this Event

December's Lunch Poems reading features poets Stephen Collis and Renée Sarojini Saklikar.

Stephen Collis is the author of fifteen books of poetry and prose, including The Commons (2008), the BC Book Prize winning On the Material (2010), and Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten (2018)—all published by Talonbooks. A History of the Theories of Rain (2021) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for poetry, and in 2019, Collis was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Latner Poetry Prize. The Middle, the second volume in a trilogy, was published in October 2024, and Knock Down House, an experimental memoir, was published by Pamenar Press in 2025. In 2026 he will deliver the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet Lecture at Vancouver Island University. He lives on Burnaby Mountain, unceded Coast Salish Territory, and teaches poetry and poetics at Simon Fraser University.

Renée Sarojini Saklikar is the author of six books, including the award-winning and . Her poetry, essays and short fiction have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Exile Editions, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review, and Pulp Literature. A Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey from 2015 to 2018, she co-founded Lunch Poems at SFU and currently teaches creative writing at Douglas College.

, the third volume of Renée’s epic fantasy in verse series, The Heart of The Journey Bears All Patterns (THOTJBAP), is forthcoming in 2026 with Nightwood Editions. The Tales of Fanon and Gavroche, excerpted from Bramah’s Discovery, is also forthcoming from Nightwood Editions in spring of 2026. Renée currently lives in East Vancouver.