Even though he studied music in university and played jazz, Wah ended up writing poetry for over 50 years and taught English and Creative Writing. His teaching career started in 1967 at Selkirk College and David Thompson University, then he moved to the University of Calgary in 1989 and was there until his retirement in 2003. Wah is a strong supporter of small, grass-roots magazines and presses and an active volunteer in community service, such as organizing readings, teaching workshops, serving as writer-in-residence.
He has published more than twenty books of poetry and won writing awards in three genres. His poetry won the Governor General’s Award (Waiting in Saskatchewan), Alberta’s Stephanson Award (So far) and the Dorothy Livesay prize for poetry (is a door). His biofiction, Diamond Grill, won Alberta’s Howard O’Hagan Award for short fiction; and his essay collection, Faking it: Poetics and Hybridtiy, won the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Literary Criticism in English Canada. On December 20, 2011, he was appointed as Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate, the fifth poet to hold this office.