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Poetic interrogation of skin in Vivek Shraya’s debut collection

Top Picks • April 12, 2017 • Monica Miller

Vivek Shraya’s debut collection of poetry, even this page is white (Arsenal Pulp Press), is a bold, timely, and personal interrogation of skin―its origins, functions, and limitations. Poems that range in style from starkly concrete to limber break down the barriers that prevent understanding of what it means to be racialized. Shraya paints the face of everyday racism with words, rendering it visible, tangible, and undeniable.

As a writer, musician, performance artist, and filmmaker, Vivek has, over the course of the last few years, established herself as a tour de force artist of the highest order. Her body of work includes ten albums, four short films, and three books, including the YA book God Loves Hair (A Quill and Quire and Canadian Children’s Book Centre Best Book of the Year) and the adult novel She of the Mountains (a Lambda Literary Award finalist).