This latest collection of poems, “The Significance of Moths,” is an examination of life in Canada within a Filipino context. The title corresponds to a Filipino superstition that moths embody the souls of those who have recently passed on: though the person has died, the spirit still lingers, like a memory to an experience long gone. Much of the poems have been created within this framework, and focus on how the acts of remembering, and uncovering truths, ultimately influence the present.

Through short poems, this work tackles issues that range from the emotional, such as loss and longing, to the more practical, such as the socio-economic hardships of adjusting to life in the diaspora. These poems include the conflict felt by second-generation Canadians who are trying to live within two cultures, and are trying to appease their families and communities while carving out their own western identities.

The collection is organized in four sections, from winter to fall, which reflect the four distinct seasons in Winnipeg. They indicate the passage of time, from the barren isolation of winter to the preparation of hibernation in the autumn. The notion of home, which figures prominently in the collection, parallels the seasons, as one experiences a certain metaphorical death by cutting off life in one place to form a new existence, by settling in a foreign land (with all the joys and hardship that experience entails). The question, however, remains: is home a physical reality or is it formed in memories and ideas? The poems in Moths reflect that internal conflict with which migrants, and their children, are often confronted, as they navigate "what is" with the ghosts of "what was."

Shirley Camia is a broadcaster and journalist, born in Winnipeg to first-generation Filipino immigrants.

She has published three books of poetry including The Significance of Moths. Her work has been featured in North American publications such as The New Quarterly, CV2, TAYO and the Winnipeg Free Press, and the anthology, My Lot is a Sky, from Math Paper Press in Singapore. Born in Winnipeg, Shirley has lived across Canada, the Philippines, Japan and Kenya. She is currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Shirley Camia's profile page

Camia masterfully employs a minimalist poetic style—strings of short, abrupt thoughts are packed with expressive meaningful imagery.

Room Magazine, Vol. 40.3

The Winnipeg-born Camia (who now lives in Toronto) combines her own memories with an attempt to capture cultural memory, the experience of Filipino immigrants. The poems recover moments through sharp, strong images — a cardinal is "a matador’s flag / for the bull / of winter" and certain remembered men had "faces / cracked like roasted pig skin" that "sent out smoky circles / cut by children chasing chickens."

Jonathan Ball

"Contemplative and affecting, The Significance of Moths burrows itself into the consciousness as an earworm would."

Shameless Magazine, Fall 2016

“The Significance of Moths” is a hauntingly beautiful look at the migration process." --Matt Dionne

"In their concision, her poems read like concentrated versions of longer works, their images and characters evoking greater backstories and a raw, palpable tension, lending a heft to Camia's slight volume."

CV2

"The Significance of Moths" is one of those collections of free verse that will linger in the mind and memory long after the slender volume has been finished and set back upon the shelf."

Midwest Book Review

This is brave, bright poetry distilled and pure.

Today's Book of Poetry

Most readers will find The Significance of Moths to exist in that rare intersection of sophistication and accessibility that so many poetry collections cannot sustain.

Asian American Literature Fans, Stephen Sohn