Vivek Shraya (born February 15, 1981) is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, where she is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being inst ...

. As a trans woman of colour, Shraya often incorporates her identity in her music, writing, visual art, theatrical work, and films. She is a seven-time

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted ...

finalist, and considered a Great Canadian Filmmaker of the Future by CBC Arts. Shraya is dedicated to bringing creative writing opportunities to emerging BIPOC writers over the age of 50 through the founding of her award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, which serves as a "mentorship and publishing opportunity" for these writers. Shraya is also a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for health, economic justice and representation for

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

women. Currently, she is focusing on the adaptation of her debut play, ''How to Fail as a Popstar'', for use on television with the support of CBC.

Career

Music

Shraya began writing songs at the age of 13 and released her first album, ''THROAT'', in 2002. Since then, she has released a dozen solo albums in a range of genres, including ''If We're Not Talking'' (2007), ''Keys & Machines'' (2009) and ''1:1'' (2011). Shraya has also created two albums, ''Bronze'' (2015) and ''Angry'' (2018), with her band, Too Attached, which she and her brother, Shamik Bilgi, formed in 2015. She has toured extensively in North America, both as a solo artist and with Too Attached, sharing the stage with Tegan and Sara,

Dragonette Dragonette is the stage name of Canadian singer-songwriter Martina Sorbara. Originally an electronic music band from Toronto, Ontario, formed in 2005, the band consisted of Sorbara with her husband Dan Kurtz as bassist and producer (also in Th ...

, Melanie C, Team Dresch, Melissa Ferrick, Brian Byrne, Greg MacPherson and

Bonjay Bonjay is a Canadian R&B musical group from Toronto, Ontario, consisting of vocalist Alanna Stuart and instrumentalist Ian Swain."Bonjay and Too Attached on the limits of 'diversity'"
'' Now'', May 23, 2018. Shraya's 2017 album, ''Part-Time Woman,'' a collaboration with the

Queer Songbook Orchestra Queer Songbook Orchestra are a Canadian chamber pop ensemble, who record and perform orchestral versions of pop songs with meaning to the LGBTQ community. Songs performed by the orchestra do not necessarily have to be explicitly LGBTQ-themed; the g ...

, was named one of the 17 best Canadian albums of 2017 by CBC Arts and longlisted for the

2018 Polaris Music Prize The 2018 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 17, 2018.

Writing

In 2010, Shraya published her first book, ''

God Loves Hair ''God Loves Hair'' is a collection of 21 short stories by Vivek Shraya with illustrations by Juliana Neufeld. The collections tells the stories of a child of Indian immigrants growing up in Canada.Originally self-published in 2010 it was a finali ...

,''"Vivek Shraya launches his first collection of short stories"
. '' Xtra!'', May 5, 2010. an illustrated collection of 21 linked short stories about a brown, genderqueer child growing up in immigrant family in Alberta. ''God Loves Hair'' was nominated for a 2011

in the Children's/Young Adult category. Shraya's second book, ''She of the Mountains'', a lyrical novel consisting of two intertwined love stories, was named one of '' The Globe and Mail''s Best 100 Books of 2014, and nominated for a 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction. Shraya was awarded the Honour of Distinction at the 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Awards."Alex Leslie wins 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers"
''

Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

'', June 8, 2015. In 2016, Shraya released her debut poetry collection, ''even this page is white'', an incisive exploration of the effects of everyday racism and colonialism in Canada that won a 2017 Publishing Triangle award and was longlisted for CBC's Canada Reads. ''The Boy & The Bindi,'' a children's picture book about a young boy's fascination with the dot on his mother's forehead, was also published in 2016. Shraya's first non-fiction book, ''I’m Afraid of Men'', was released in August 2018. '' '' In 2017, Shraya partnered with Arsenal Pulp Press to create an imprint, VS. Books. Through VS. Books, Shraya supports young writers of colour by providing mentorship through the writing and editing processes and publishing a book by a different emerging artist every year. The first VS. title,

Téa Mutonji Téa Mutonji is a Canadian writer and poet, whose debut short story collection ''Shut Up You're Pretty'' was published in 2019.Sue Carter"Vivek Shraya's book imprint launches with Scarborough author Tea Mutonji" ''Toronto Star'', April 12, 2019. ...

's short story collection ''Shut Up You're Pretty'', was published in 2019. Shraya's first graphic non-fiction work ''Death Threat'' was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2019. Ness Lee did the visual art for the book. Shraya's second novel ''The Subtweet'' was published on April 7, 2020 by ECW Press. The book is focused on an intense friendship between two women of colour musicians. ''

'' reviewed ''The Subtweet'' in March 2020, concluding that "While it wrestles with the political realities of working in the arts and navigating social media, ''The Subtweet'' also elucidates certain social-justice modes of thought. Shraya’s narrative pushes back against the ways mainstream and pop-culture formulations of social justice are used to further agendas misaligned with principles of equity. It critiques the ways in which social-justice rhetoric can be wielded as a weapon for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or the pursuit of personal vendettas. ''The Subtweet'' attempts to nudge the reader toward a more critical perspective and to encourage the reader to be more skeptical of what comes out of the mouths of public figures, especially when money and politics are involved." Shraya's 2022 book ''People Change'' was published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase o ...

and was included in

CBC Books CBC Arts (french: Radio-Canada Arts) is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that creates and curates written articles, short documentaries, non-fiction series and interactive projects that represent the excellence of Canada's div ...

list of "26 Canadian Books to Read for Pride Month".

Media and visual arts

Shraya has created five short films that have screened at festivals across Canada and internationally. In 2016, she released a photo series, ''Trisha,'' featuring old photos of her mother displayed alongside contemporary re-creations of the images with Shraya herself as the subject. This project has been shown in galleries across North America and a digital version of ''Trisha'' has circulated internationally. Before coming out as a trans woman on February 15, 2016, Shraya made the film, ''Seeking Single White Male'' on August 1, 2010. This film depicts a set of pictures of Shraya increasingly altering her features to those more associated with a Caucasian person. The images depict the bleaching of her brown hair to blonde in addition to the constant use of blue eye contacts over her brown eyes. In a post on her website just over two years after the original post, Shraya shares that the purpose behind the film was “to show how the internalization of racism can manifest externally.” An analysis of ''Seeking Single White Male'' completed in June 2019 reveals that “The comments incorporated into this video clearly address the existence of racialized conceptions of desirability within the gay community in Ontario, Canada.” Prior to 2010, Shraya altered her appearance to appear more Caucasian in response to the “racialized conceptions of desirability” in the Edmonton gay bars that she frequented. ''Seeking Single White Male'' has been shown in multiple screenings including the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in 2011 and the Reel Asian International Film Festival in Toronto, ON in 2012. Shraya's first theatrical work debuted on February 18, 2020. The work is called "How to Fail as a Popstar," chronicling "her journey to 'not quite' pop music superstardom. A reflection on the power of pop culture, dreams, disappointments and self-determination, this astonishing performance is a triumph in finding one’s authentic voice." The play includes original songs written and performed by Shraya. In 2020, Shraya partnered with Pantene on their global Hair Has No Gender Project, highlighting the importance of hair in a trans or gender non-binary person's identity and transition. The campaign's film included a conversation about self-expression and familial support between Shraya and her father, Mohan Bilgi.

Personal life

Vivek Shraya identifies as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...

. On February 15, 2016, Shraya also came out as

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

and announced via her Facebook account that she is now using

she/her In Modern English, ''she'' is a singular, feminine, third-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''she'' has four shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''she'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''her'': the ...

pronouns.

Discography

*''Samsara: The Sketches'' (2002) *''THROAT EP'' (2003) *''A Composite of Straight Lines'' (2005) *''If We're Not Talking'' (2007) *''If We're Not Talking'' Single (2008) *''Keys & Machines'' (2009) *''Part Time Woman'' (2017)

Books

*''

'' (2010) *'' She of the Mountains'' (2014) *''even this page is white'' (2016) *''

The Boy & the Bindi ''The Boy & the Bindi'' is a 2016 children's picture book by Vivek Shraya and illustrated by Rajni Perera. It is about a young boy's obsession with his mother's bindi and his experiences when he wears one. Reception The ''School Library Journal' ...

'' (2016) *''I'm Afraid of Men'' (2018) *''Death Threat'' (2019) *''The Subtweet'' (2020) *''Next Time There's a Pandemic'' (2022) *People Change

References

External links

Vivek Shraya
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shraya, Vivek 1981 births Living people Canadian people of Indian descent Writers from Edmonton Writers from Toronto Canadian writers of Asian descent Queer writers 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian LGBT novelists Canadian LGBT poets 21st-century Canadian short story writers Transgender artists Canadian transgender writers Transgender women musicians Canadian electronic musicians Canadian dance musicians Canadian LGBT singers Musicians from Toronto Musicians from Edmonton Canadian women novelists Canadian women short story writers 21st-century Canadian women writers University of Calgary faculty Transgender academics Transgender women Transgender musicians