Fourth-year University of Windsor student Trina Das had her poem, A Body of Water Running, longlisted for the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize. (LINDSAY CHARLTON/ University of Windsor)
By Lindsay Charlton
Against the backdrop of the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade tensions, a University of Windsor poet penned a “border city love letter” inspired by the tensions and the people caught in the midst of it.
The poem A Body of Water Running by fourth-year student Trina Das, earned a spot on the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize longlist.
“Living in Windsor, right across the border, there’s all this political stuff going on, and we’re kind of ground zero for it because of how closely our economies are tied,” Das explained.
“All over the city you see these dual flags representing both countries, and when you really start to notice it, it becomes this kind of tragic irony which I was inspired by.”
Her work was selected as one of 23 recognized nationally from a pool of more than 3,200 submissions.
“The CBC literary prizes are well established and recognized within the literary community, and while I’ve submitted my work before, I’ve never been longlisted, this feels like such a big accomplishment — professors have been congratulating me — it’s really exciting,” she said.
In a CBC article profiling the selected works and writers, Das described the poem as a love letter. Her piece harnesses strong imagery, with the opening lines placing readers where she was while writing, with its smells, tastes and visuals.
“My poems are very much based in the world around me, much of everything I can see and touch,” she said.
With A Body of Water Running, Das hopes the poem resonates with people, especially in Windsor, and can act as a catharsis for those caught in the crossfire of the trade disputes.
“Many people here treat Detroit like a second home, and there is so much American influence and then to have that sudden shift in relationship is this tragic thing that many people haven’t spoken about in those terms. So I hope people can identify with it in that sense,” she said.
Writing is a relatively new creative venture for Das, who is now working toward a double major in computer science and English and creative writing.
It wasn’t until she went to an event for science majors hosted by the Science Meet Arts (SMArt) club that she started to explore this talent.
Das attended the creative writing workshop with Professor Susan Holbrook and was inspired.
“After that, I applied to more creative writing workshops, and I fell in love with it, which led me to take it on as a double major,” she said.
Her work has since appeared in several literary magazines, including the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Magazine. She was a nominee for the 2025 Adele Wiseman Poetry Award and a finalist for the 2024 Montreal International Poetry Prize.