Téa
Mutonji
Téa Mutonji is a poet and writer. She was named emerging writer of the year by the Ontario Book Publishers Organization in 2017. Mutonji is the inaugural author to be published under the Arsenal Pulp Press imprint VS. Books, a series curated and edited by writer-musician Vivek Shraya featuring work by new and emerging Indigenous or Black writers, or writers of colour. Shut Up You're Pretty is her first book. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, Mutonji lives and writes in Scarborough, Ontario.
Award History
Jury Citation
"Téa Mutonji’s Shut Up You’re Pretty is a fiercely intelligent collection about the inner lives of young women, examining abortion, family conflict, and the emergence of sexual identity. In writing marked by bursts of intense language, Mutonji takes the reader into her nuanced study of a young Congolese immigrant, always refusing to look away from pain and uncertainty. Driven by its crisp, unsettling dialogue and meticulous psychological detail, this is a compelling work about the fear and yearning of our youth."
— 2019 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Jury (Dennis Bock, Michael Kaan, and Suzette Mayr)
