Téa Mutonji

Born in Congo-Kinshasa,TÉA MUTONJI is a poet and fiction writer whose work focuses on friendship, womanhood, race and sexuality. Her short stories were awarded the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Mutonji was a recipient of the Writers’ Trust Rising Star’s award. Her essay, “The Price of Being Pretty”, was nominated for a National Media Awards Foundation Digital Publishing Award in the category of Best Essays and “To Love Again” was a silver winner in that same category. She holds a degree in Media Studies and minors in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, Scarborough, where she was the recipient of the Jasun Singh Memorial Prize in Creative Writing. Her debut collection of short stories, Shut Up You’re Pretty, was the first title from Vivek Shraya’s imprint, VS. Books. It was featured on several end-of-the-year lists, including The Globe 100, The Walrus Best Books  and the Quill & Quire Books of the Year. Shut Up You’re Pretty was shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and the Trillium Book Award. Shut Up You’re Pretty was also a finalist for Canada Reads 2024. Mutonji received the Jill Davis Fellowship at New York University where she received her MFA in fiction. My Person is her debut novel.