Tea Gerbeza is a queer, disabled writer and multimedia artist creating in oskanakâ-asastêki in Treaty 4 territory (Regina, SK) and on the Homeland of the Métis. Tea holds a BA (Hons.) in English (2017) and an MA in Creative Writing and English from the University of Regina (2019). Tea’s thesis work for her MA was SSHRC funded. She also holds an MFA in Writing from the University of Saskatchewan (2021). Much of Tea’s work focuses on themes of reclaiming disabled identity, disability justice, disabled and queer joy, queer identity, the Bosnian-Croatian diaspora, memory and trauma, friendship, the complexities of care and intimacy, and the complexities of pain. Often, her verse and visual art intersect in her poetry, as seen in How I Bend Into More.
In 2019, Tea’s poetry won an Honourable Mention in the 2019 Short Grain Contest. Her scanograph, “My Father Catches Me Confronting Memory,” won an Honourable Mention in Room magazine’s 2020 Cover Art Contest; she was a finalist for both Palette Poetry’s 2021 Emerging Poet Prize, and Room magazine’s 2022 Short Forms contest. Tea is the winner of the Ex-Puritan’s 2022 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence in the Poetry category. She was recognized by SK Arts as one of 75 strong emerging artists that makes the future of Saskatchewan arts exciting.
In her visual art, Tea paper-quills beds, floral motifs, and jewelry, exploring similar themes as she does in her writing. Find her on Instagram at @poetgerby.
Photo credit: Ali Lauren
How I Bend Into More releases January 2025 under the Anstruther Press imprint.
