Shut Up You're Pretty by Ta Mutonji

In Ta Mutonji's disarming debut story collection, a woman contemplates her Congolese traditions during a family wedding, a teenage girl looks for happiness inside a pack of cigarettes, a mother reconnects with her daughter through their shared interest in fish, and a young woman decides to shave her head in the waiting room of an abortion clinic. These punchy, sharply observed stories blur the lines between longing and choosing, exploring the narrator's experience as an involuntary one. Tinged with pathos and humour, they interrogate the moments in which femininity, womanness, and identity are not only questioned but also imposed.

Shut UpYou're Prettyis the first book to be published under the imprint VS. Books, a series of books curated and edited by writer-musician Vivek Shraya featuring work by new and emerging Indigenous or black writersor writers of colour. (From Arsenal Pulp Press)

Shut Up You're Prettywas on the shortlist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prizeand waschampioned by Kudakwashe Rutendo on Canada Reads 2024.

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WhyTa Mutonjiwrote Shut UpYou're Pretty

"I was first writing these stories independently and I realized that I waswriting the same character for the protagonist. I wanted to explore why I was doing that. I didn't wantto write a collection of short stories about a young black woman living her life and have it be suggested that it was the experience of all black women. I did understand, however, that itwould probably be regarded as such because we don't have enough young women of colour writing.

That wasimportant to me, to show that this is one woman experiencing different women in multiple ways and experiencing different experiences in multiple ways.- Ta Mutjoni

"I decided to keep it to one character so this could be viewed as one experience.That wasimportant to me, to show that this is one woman experiencing different women in multiple ways and experiencing different experiences in multiple ways. This is not at all the experience of every personof colour, of every women, of everyimmigrantand of every person from that Galloway neighbourhood."

Read more inTa Mutonji's interview with CBC Books.

Interviews withTa Mutonji

The Next Chapter19:57Canada Reads panelist Kudakwashe Rutendo and author Ta Mutonji meet for the first time

Albertan actor Kudakwashe Rutendo, known for her breakout role in the 2023 film Backspot, will be championing Toronto writer Tea Mutonjis book Shut Up Youre Pretty in the upcoming Canada Reads debates. Shut Up Youre Pretty is a collection of loosely connected stories that follow a teenage girl and her desire for love and belonging.