Téa Mutonji
Téa Mutonji is a Canadian writer, whose debut short story collection Shut Up You're Pretty was published in 2019.[1]
Born in the Republic of the Congo,[2] Mutonji came to Canada with her family in childhood and grew up in the Scarborough district of Toronto and in Oshawa.[3] She studied media studies and creative writing at the University of Toronto Scarborough,[1] and planned to go to law school when she was selected as the first writer to be published by VS, Vivek Shraya's new publishing imprint for emerging writers of colour.[4]
Shut Up You're Pretty, a collection of linked short stories about a young girl's coming of age in Scarborough's Galloway neighbourhood, was written in part to counter negative stereotypes of the neighbourhood with a narrative that depicted some of her own more positive experiences of having lived there.[2] The book was published in spring 2019,[5] and was named a shortlisted finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in September.[6] In 2020, the book won the Edmund White Award for debut fiction from Publishing Triangle.[7]
Bibliography
- Shut up You're Pretty (2019)
References
- Sue Carter, "Vivek Shraya’s book imprint launches with Scarborough author Tea Mutonji". Toronto Star, April 12, 2019.
- "'Galloway was amazing': Toronto author's short-story collection gives readers another view of Scarborough". Metro Morning, April 25, 2019.
- Rachna Raj Kaur, "Téa Mutonji adds an incisive coming-of-age tale to Scarborough's literary canon". Now, May 8, 2019.
- Sue Carter, "Téa Mutonji selected as first writer under Vivek Shraya’s VS. imprint with Arsenal Pulp". Quill & Quire, December 11, 2017.
- Sheniz Janmohamed, "Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji and Coconut Dreams by Derek Mascarenhas". Quill & Quire, May 2019.
- "André Alexis, Michael Crummey shortlisted for $50K Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize". CBC Books, September 24, 2019.
- Samraweet Yohannes, "Téa Mutonji and Kai Cheng Thom among winners of 2020 Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQ literature". CBC Books, May 1, 2020.