Vivek Shraya

In poetry, I didn't have to provide resolution. I could ask hard questions without feeling responsible for the answers.

— Vivek Shraya

Of course, I can't separate my queerness from my brownness - if anything, my queerness amplifies my brownness, and vice versa -…

— Vivek Shraya

Generally, I start by observing the existing and popular narratives in my social spheres and media, and the pressures I face in…

— Vivek Shraya

I worry about what Trump will inspire in Canada, especially given incidents that have already occurred here since the election.

— Vivek Shraya

“Reinvention requires both a kind of death and a desire to keep living. And so at its core, reinvention is inextricably linked…

— Vivek Shraya

As much as I believe in the capacity for art to create change, and as much as being an artist is physically…

— Vivek Shraya

I always work with text orally in the writing process, saying passages aloud to measure flow.

— Vivek Shraya

I recently did a reading at an elementary school in Ottawa, and one of the children asked me if I was a…

— Vivek Shraya

I am always hesitant to call myself an activist, mostly out of respect for the activists who are using their bodies and…

— Vivek Shraya

I don't yet know what style will be required for my next novel, but my sense is that each book will involve…

— Vivek Shraya

As a general rule, I tend to collaborate with artists whose work I admire.

— Vivek Shraya

As a brown artist, I have mixed feelings about my relationship to art and my "responsibilities" post-Trump.

— Vivek Shraya

When I wouldn't leave home without my blue contacts or when I was bleaching my hair, I didn't have the language to…

— Vivek Shraya

Making music has been connected to one of my greatest heartaches, because my own music has never quite connected with audiences. But…

— Vivek Shraya

Music is my first love, where my artistic journey began.

— Vivek Shraya

My interest in language is steadfast, but I think each project and its accompanying intentions dictate how language must be used.

— Vivek Shraya

I do use art as a site of protest, particularly in relation to dominant narratives.

— Vivek Shraya

I feel like I have had to catch up to the art I've made, and learn from the protagonists I have written,…

— Vivek Shraya

I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.

— Vivek Shraya

I couldn't write about love without writing about hate - specifically, how the experience of hatred embeds itself in the body and…

— Vivek Shraya