Téa Mutonji

Téa Mutonji is a Canadian writer and poet, whose debut short story collection Shut Up You're Pretty was published in 2019.[1]

Téa Mutonji
Mutonji in Toronto, October 11, 2022
Mutonji in Toronto, October 11, 2022
BornDemocratic Republic of the Congo
OccupationAuthor
Alma materUniversity of Toronto Scarborough
Notable worksShut Up You're Pretty

Early life

Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[2] Mutonji came to Canada with her family when she was young and grew up in the Scarborough district of Toronto and in Oshawa.[3] While living in Scarborough, she worked in the service industry.[4] She then 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. Books, Vivek Shraya's new Arsenal Pulp Press imprint for emerging writers of colour.[5]

Works

Shut Up You're Pretty, published in 2019, is a collection of linked short stories about a young girl's coming of age in Scarborough's Galloway neighbourhood.[2] The novel centers around Loli and her experiences, which include, her moving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Canada, her sexual experiences, her grappling with gender roles, and issues revolving around poverty and consent.[4] Mutonji wrote the novel 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]

Currently, Mutonji is working on an anthology with Adrian De Leon and Natasha Ramoutar.  The anthology focuses on Scarborough writing.[3]

Themes

In an interview with CityNews, Mutonji stated that she writes from an "activist lens".[6]

Mutonji describes that being called pretty is not a compliment.[6]  It is offensive because it prioritizes women’s physical appearance and overshadows every other attribute a woman can be.[6]  Instead, Mutonji describes a shift that is happening where women demand that their character is looked at first.[6]

Accolades

Mutonji has received several major awards for her work, including:

She was also named a finalist for the 2019 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.[9]  In 2017, the Ontario Book Publishers Organization named Mutonji an emerging writer of the year.[10]

In 2023 she was named one of the ten winners of the Journey Prize, in a special edition devoted to Black Canadian writers.[11]

References
  1. Sue Carter, "Vivek Shraya's book imprint launches with Scarborough author Tea Mutonji". Toronto Star, April 12, 2019.
  2. "'Galloway was amazing': Toronto author's short-story collection gives readers another view of Scarborough". Metro Morning, April 25, 2019.
  3. Rachna Raj Kaur, "Téa Mutonji adds an incisive coming-of-age tale to Scarborough's literary canon". Now, May 8, 2019.
  4. "U of T Scarborough's Tea Mutonji wins the Ontario Creates Trillium Book Award". University of Toronto Alumni. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  5. Sue Carter, "Téa Mutonji selected as first writer under Vivek Shraya's VS. imprint with Arsenal Pulp". Quill & Quire, December 11, 2017.
  6. "Writers' Trust finalist Tea Mutonji on the ugly side of 'pretty'". CityNews. November 1, 2019.
  7. Samraweet Yohannes, "Téa Mutonji and Kai Cheng Thom among winners of 2020 Publishing Triangle Awards for LGBTQ literature". CBC Books, May 1, 2020.
  8. "2020 Trillium Book Award Winners". Ontario Creates. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  9. "André Alexis, Michael Crummey shortlisted for $50K Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize". CBC Books, September 24, 2019.
  10. "Téa Mutonji | Writers' Trust of Canada". Téa Mutonji | Writers' Trust of Canada. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  11. "Emerging black writers win the Journey Prize". Caribbean Camera, February 1, 2023.
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