Six Questions interview #77 : Christina Shah

Christina Shah was born in Ottawa, lives in Vancouver, and works in heavy industry. Her poetry has also appeared in The Fiddlehead, Vallum, Arc, Grain, and PRISM international, with work forthcoming in The Antigonish Review and The Malahat Review. On a hot day, she can be found at a good swimming hole.

Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away? 

Five years– from 0-5. While how I got here is pretty self-explanatory, we left when my father got transferred to Edmonton.

Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here? 

I was exposed to books and poetry at an early age, and was a bookworm from the get-go. My first book of poetry was Dennis Lee’s Alligator Pie, so the die was cast. I wrote fiction when I was younger, and that morphed into poetry in my mid-twenties. My involvement in the Ottawa writing community today extends to ARC poetry (Issue 90- Labour and Livelihood), enthusiastic participation in the Arc Award of Awesomeness contest some months, and occasional bizarre exchanges with the talented Chiuqiao Yang. And of course, becoming acquainted with you, rob!

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since? 

There have definitely been shifts based on where I’ve lived. As an adult, mostly Vancouver, with a few years in Saskatoon– a period which ended up being a real catalyst for my writing. I met and worked with some wonderful poets there. I was fortunate enough to be one of Pierrette Requier’s students at the age of 7. She encouraged me even then, and herself became the Poet Laureate of Edmonton many years later.

Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow? 

I’m really not current on what’s happening in Ottawa, but from what I gather, Ottawa has a fantastic poetry scene, with great indie presses, reading series, festivals, journals and bookstores. I’m looking forward to visiting when VERSeFest is happening!

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work? 

I don’t write much about those early years, but I did use the word ‘Trudeaumanic’ in a poem. I also wrote a poem (‘seafood department’) inspired by Lapointe Fish in the ByWard Market, which was recently published in mouse eggs by the Véhicule Poets. Seriously though, there are some real cultural advantages to being in Ottawa, and those seeds were planted in me early on.  

Q: What are you working on now? 

Well, I’ve recently completed my first full-length manuscript, if: prey, then: huntress. It’s composed of industrial work poetry, portraits of beer drinkers and hellraisers, still life oddities, and urban landscapes. Other than that, I’m trying to branch out more in terms of form (both on and off the page) and am in the early stages of experimenting with chapbooks, videopoetry and other collaborative forms. My approach is akin to that 80s’ Ontario tourism chestnut–‘Yours to Discover’!