Bren Simmers is the recipient of the 2025 Latner Griffin Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize. She is the author of four books of poetry: The Work (Gaspereau Press, 2024), which won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award, If, When (Gaspereau Press, 2021), Hastings-Sunrise (Nightwood Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award, and Night Gears (Wolsak & Wynn, 2010). Her first book of non-fiction, Pivot Point (Gaspereau Press, 2019), is a lyrical account of a nine-day wilderness canoe journey and a frank reflection on the roles friendship, mindfulness, and creativity play in the evolution of our lives.
Bren completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Victoria and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Innovation PEI, and the Squamish Arts Council. Her work has won the CBC Poetry Prize, The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, the ARC Poem of the Year Award, and was a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award. In 2016-2017, she was the Writer in Residence at the Ranger Station Art Gallery in Harrison Hot Springs. A lifelong west coaster, she now lives on Epekwitk/PEI.
Author photo by Mike Needham
Bren Simmers 