Tanya Boteju is an English teacher and writer of Sri Lankan ancestry. Boteju earned bachelor degrees in English and Education from the University of British Columbia and an MA from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She received a Creative Writing Certificate through Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio. Boteju is based in unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, BC).
Fiction (Young adult)
Bruised
New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021.
PS8603.O847 B78 2021
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
To Daya Wijesinghe, a bruise is a mixture of comfort and control. Since her parents died in an accident she survived, bruises have become a way to keep her pain on the surface of her skin so she doesn’t need to deal with the ache deep in her heart.
So when chance and circumstances bring her to a roller derby bout, Daya is hooked. Yes, the rules are confusing and the sport seems to require the kind of teamwork and human interaction Daya generally avoids. But the opportunities to bruise are countless, and Daya realizes that if she’s going to keep her emotional pain at bay, she’ll need all the opportunities she can get.
The deeper Daya immerses herself into the world of roller derby, though, the more she realizes it’s not the simple physical pain-fest she was hoping for. Her rough-and-tumble teammates and their fans push her limits in ways she never imagined, bringing Daya to big truths about love, loss, strength, and healing.
Fiction (Young adult)
Kings, Queens, and In-betweens
New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019.
PS8603.O847 K56 2019
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Perpetually awkward Nima Kumara-Clark is bored with her insular community of Bridgeton, in love with her straight girlfriend, and trying to move past her mother’s unexpected departure. After a bewildering encounter at a local festival, Nima finds herself suddenly immersed in the drag scene on the other side of town.
Macho drag kings, magical queens, new love interests, and surprising allies propel Nima both painfully and hilariously closer to a self she never knew she could be—one that can confidently express and accept love. But she’ll have to learn to accept lost love to get there.
From debut author Tanya Boteju comes a poignant, laugh-out-loud tale of acceptance, self-expression, and the colorful worlds that await when we’re brave enough to look.
Fiction (Young adult)
Messy Perfect
New York: Quill Tree Books an imprint of HarperCollins, 2025
PS8603.O847 M47 2025
Publisher’s Synopsis (From itw website)
Cassie Perera is a star student in St. Luke’s junior class. But the new school year brings an unwelcome surprise—the return to St. Luke’s of Cassie’s former friend, Ben, who left a few years ago after a homophobic bullying incident Cassie knows she didn’t do enough to prevent.
Still harboring guilt from her inaction, Cassie decides, in her usual, overzealous way, to team up with the neighboring public school to found an underground Gender and Sexuality Alliance—as a complicated strategy for making things up to Ben. Secretly, Cassie is also tempted by the possibility of opening up about her own sexuality for the first time.
As Cassie’s new friends urge her out of her comfort zone, she unlocks a kind of joy and freedom she’s never felt before—even as she struggles to balance these experiences with her typical tightrope of being the perfect daughter, student, and Catholic.
Cassie’s perfectly curated life unravels into turmoil, but can she embrace the mess enough to piece together something new?