(L to R) Rinaldo Walcott, Vivek Shraya, Sarah Henstra and Rachel Giese at TIFA 2018
At #FestofAuthors18, Delegate Téa Mutonji had the opportunity to witness (for the very first time) two of her mentors perform their work on stage: poet Daniel Scott Tysdal, a former professor of Téa’s; and Vivek Shraya, a major figure in Téa’s writing career since she was signed to VS. Books, an imprint of Arsenal Pulp Press founded by Shraya herself.
In 2018, we profiled some of the authors who participated in the 39th edition of the Festival. After this profile was published, Vivek Shraya published her first comic with artist Ness Lee, Death Threat, and became one of M·A·C Cosmetics’ Ambassador as part of the Canadian Original campaign. Her imprint, V.S. Books, also announced its second writer, Cicely-Belle Blain.
Is there anything Vivek Shraya can’t do? For over 10 years now, the multi-disciplinary artist has bounced from medium to medium without ever missing a step, always subverting expectations and defying categorization. Short films, photo exhibits, solo and collaborative albums, poetry and short story collections – you name it, she’s done it.