11 Shani Mootoo
The Canadian cultural mosaic is neatly summed up in the person of Shani
Mootoo, a Canadian of Indian ethnicity, born in Ireland and raised in
Trinidad. She is an internationally acclaimed multimedia artist whose work
has been exhibited in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries.
Expressing herself through visual art was a reaction to the sexual abuse
she suffered as a child, a nightmare of which she was told never to speak.
She began to put things into words with Out On Main Street, her
enthusiastically received 1993 collection of short fiction. Her
spectacular follow-up, Cereus Blooms At Night, was a finalist for
the 1997 Giller Prize, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and
the Ethel Wilson Prize. Critics praised it as a story of magical power,
and a plea for tolerance. Her third novel, Valmiki’s Daughter
(House of Anansi), is set in Trinidad and is described by its publisher as
“a juicy, sexy, beautiful book…exposing the complex interaction of
race, gender, class and sexuality.”
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