Kudakwashe Rutendo is a rising star uplifting an emerging author on Canada Reads

Actor Kudakwashe Rutendois championing the short story collectionShut Up You're PrettybyTa MutonjionCanada Reads2024!

Rutendostarred in the feature film, Backspot, which had its world premiere at TIFF in 2023. She was named a rising star by bothTIFFandCBC Arts. Rutendo is also voracious reader sharing her favourites with herInstagramfollowers.

The great Canadian book debate will take place on March 4-7. This year, we are looking forone book to carry us forward.

• Meet theCanada Reads2024 contenders

The debates will be hosted byAli Hassanandwill be broadcast onCBC Radio One,CBC TV,CBC Gem,CBC Listenand onCBC Books.The debates will take place live at 10:05 a.m. ET.You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice. Check out all the broadcast details here.

A rising actor championing a rising author

Rutendois an actor from Fort McMurray, Alta., who fell in love with the stage by performing live poetry. Since then she's starred in feature filmsGiving Hope: The Ni'cola Mitchell Storyand, most recently,Backspot, a queer cheer drama directed by D.W. Waterson and produced by Elliot Page and Page Boy Productions.

• Kudakwashe Rutendo is making a handspring into the spotlight with the cheerleading drama Backspot

She's not just a film star her theatre credits include roles in theLost Heroes of OroatTheatre by the Bay and ViergeatFactory Theatre and she does it all whilejuggling her coursework as an undergrad at the University of Toronto.

Rutendoreads dozens of books a year from a variety of genresfantasy, literary fiction, poetry, genre fiction, thrillers and more and she's even just finished writing on one of her own, a mix of poetry and prosethat follows a Black ballerina who moves to Toronto and struggles with loneliness and mental health issues.

• Kudakwashe Rutendo shares 6 books that got her hooked on new genres

Captivated by stories that contain multitudesand touch everyone who reads them, she's ready to share whyShut Up You're Prettyfits that criteria and offers readers much-needed raw hope.

"WithinShut Up You're Prettyis the promise of hope and future, not in spite of a heavy past, but because of it,"said Rutendo in her30-second pitch onCBC Radio'sCommotion."At once feminist, unapologetic and potent,Shut Up You're Prettypresents the opportunity to reconcile what we've been carrying at a time when it couldn't be more needed," said Rutendo.

"This is one book to carry us forward through negotiating our past."

LISTEN | TheCanada Reads2024contenders speak with CBC Radio'sCommotion:

25:00Book lovers, rejoice it's time for Canada Reads!

Commotion is proud to announce the most highly anticipated reading list of the year. Elamin will reveal the five Canadian celebrities and the five books they'll be championing, and give each panelist a thirty second preview of what's to come.

A book that makes you feel seen

ForCanada Reads, Rutendowanted to choose abook that would stay with her long after the final page. "I just want something to provoke me to emotion," she told CBC Books in an interview."That's what I think we're all seeking. We're all seeking to be affected by what we consume. That's what art is. It's supposed to leave some sort of lasting impression on us."

• Miss the Canada Reads contenders on The Next Chapter? Catch up here

After readingShut Up You're Prettyfor the first time, she took three days to fully process it and couldn't stoptelling her friends and familyabout itand what it meant to her. "Then by the third day I was like, 'This book will not leave me.'" And so aCanada Readsbook was chosen.

What resonated most with Rutendo were the experiences of Loli, the main character, as a young Black woman growing up in Canada who struggles to feel beautiful and accepted. "It feels like I can finally come to terms with something that I've carried my entire life," she said.

It feels like I can finally come to terms with something that I've carried my entire life.- Kudakwashe Rutendo

"I think when you feel seen,the burden becomes lighter;it's not that I'm just carrying it alone. I now see that we're sharing it equally across the board and I'm seeing that someone else is going through what I'm going through. And inus going through it together, the burden becomes a bit lighter, which was fantastic for me."

LISTEN | Kudakwashe Rutendo onUp To Speed:

Canada Reads6:10Kudakwashe Rutendo on Up To Speed

Actor Kudakwashe Rutendo speaks to Faith Fundal on Up To Speed about being a Canada Reads panellist.

Linked stories about growing up

Shut Up You're Prettyis a short fiction collection that tells stories of a young woman coming of age in the 21st century in Scarborough, Ont.The disarming, punchy and observant stories follow her as she watches someone decide to shaveher head in an abortion clinic waiting room, bonds with her mother over fish and contemplates her Congolese traditions at a wedding.

• Read an excerpt fromShut Up You're Prettynow

Shut Up You're Prettywas onthe 2019 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize shortlistand won the 2020 Edmund White Award for debut fiction.

CBC Booksnamed Mutonjia writer to watch in 2019. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, Mutonji is also the editor of the anthologyFeel Ways: A Scarborough Anthology.She currently lives in Toronto.

• Why Ta Mutonji wanted her first short story collection to challenge what diverse literature is supposed to be

"I was first writing these stories independently and I realized that I was writing the same character for the protagonist,"Ta Mutonji said in an interview with CBC Books.

"I wanted to explore why I was doing that. I didn't want to write a collection of short stories about a young Black woman living her life and have it be suggested that it was the experience of all Black women. I did understand, however, that it would probably be regarded as such because we don't have enough young women of colour writing.

I didn't want to write a collection of short stories about a young Black woman living her life and have it be suggested that it was the experience of all Black women.- Ta Mutonji

"I decided to keep it to one character so this could be viewed as one experience. That was important to me, to show that this is one woman experiencing different women in multiple ways and experiencing different experiences in multiple ways.

"This is not at all the experience of every person of colour, of every woman, of every immigrant and of every person from that Galloway neighbourhood."

Uplifting Black women

By choosingShut Up You're PrettyforCanada Reads, Rutendo hopes to lighten the burden for the Black women who have doubts about their self-worth.

"A lot of my motivation for this is to really press the narrative, especially to young Black women who are reading or just Black women who have carried this, that we are beautiful, we are pretty, we are worthy," she said.

Rutendowas also intentional when using herCanada Readsplatform tochampion a Black author from an indie publisher.

"In the publishing industry, sometimes it's kind of hard, especially for people of colour to get the opportunities like this," she said."It's not as easily accessible to everyone equally. So for meI really wanted to be deliberate intrying to seek out people that could really benefit from this because it's not like the stories are any less good. It's not that at all. It's just a difference of opportunities. We can play a really big role in balancing the scales and I want to do that as much as I can."

LISTEN | Kudakwashe Rutendo andTa Mutonji discuss Shut Up You're Pretty:

The Next Chapter19:57Canada Reads panelist Kudakwashe Rutendo and author Ta Mutonji meet for the first time

Albertan actor Kudakwashe Rutendo, known for her breakout role in the 2023 film Backspot, will be championing Toronto writer Tea Mutonjis book Shut Up Youre Pretty in the upcoming Canada Reads debates. Shut Up Youre Pretty is a collection of loosely connected stories that follow a teenage girl and her desire for love and belonging.