Author Launches Interdisciplinary Novel and Album Project—Plus Photo Series

Canada Council grants are helping Vivek Shraya complete an interdisciplinary book and album project along with a photo series.

Novel delves into the complexities of the music industry for women and minorities

Vivek Shraya is an award-winning author, musician and visual artist working on her second novel with a companion album of songs written and performed by the book’s central characters. Drawing on her experiences, the story looks at the complexities of the music industry—particularly for brown women musicians. It also explores the challenges of building professional relationships and friendships. The album will serve as a soundtrack for the book, with Shraya performing in the characters’ styles and voices. Key underlying themes in Shraya’s new book, which is titled The Subtweet, are the damaging effects of tokenism and the pressures experienced by women of colour in mainstream popular culture.

Difficult questions and a provocative photo series

With another grant from the Canada Council, Shraya is also creating a photo series called Trauma Clown. The series will highlight the ways in which she has often felt required to be a “trauma clown,” as arts industries value marginalized artists’ work based on their portrayal of suffering.