The poet Christina Shah discusses her debut collection If: Prey, Then: Huntress (Nightwood Editions, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

If: Prey, Then: Huntress by Christina Shah (Nightwood Editions, 2025).

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: If: Prey, Then: Huntress

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

If: Prey, Then: Huntress is the debut collection of Christina Shah, who works in heavy industry and whose poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary journals. The collection is full of thoughtful and evocative poems that provide searing observations as well as illuminating sketches. You get a sense of the workplace, and a traditionally male-dominated environment at that, where women and visible minorities are making entries in the workforce. We see the truth and beauty in hard work and long hours, as well as the passing of time what with co-workers getting fired or dying, or industries modernising thanks to technology. Ms. Shah, who joined me just over three weeks ago, also evokes memory so well, not just in sights and sounds that she translates to the page, but food and the attendant smells. I’ll ask Christina about the poems in the collection, as well as the literary community that she finds herself in with her previous award-winning poems, as well as chapbooks that’s she published heretofore. The book is from Nightwood Editions. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Christina Shah; Ms. Shah, good morning.

The post Christina Shah first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

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