#Jenny Heijun Wills

[bookjotter6865]

Winding Up the Week #393

An end of week recap “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” – Virginia Woolf We will be heading off on a slightly delayed honeymoon, or honeymoomin as our waggish doggy-sitter (pun intended) insists on calling it, on 1st October for four days – only as far as York, but it will, I’m afraid, scupper next Saturday’s…

[dinnickhowellslikes]

I like this distorted flower image, and wonder how it was done. Not sure if book cover designer Terri Nimmo made the image, or whether it's artwork that was licensed. It had a photocopier slur kind of effect or fun house mirror, but it too chaotic for that. Would love to learn how it was done - if it's simply a photoshop filter, I'll be intrigued (but also a bit disappointed!)

Thanks to The Casual Optimist, Dan Wagstaff's always great round ups of recent book cover designs, called , where I spotted this cover.

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Everything and Nothing At All: Essays

By Jenny Heijun Wills.

[richincolor]

Book Review: When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology edited by Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung

Summary: There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for teens edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung contains a wide range of powerful, poignant, and evocative stories in a variety of genres.

These tales from fifteen bestselling, acclaimed, and emerging adoptee authors genuinely and authentically reflect the complexity, breadth, and depth of adoptee experiences.

This groundbreaking collection centers what it’s like growing up as an adoptee. These are stories by adoptees, for adoptees, reclaiming their own narratives.

With stories by: Kelley Baker, Nicole Chung, Shannon Gibney, Mark Oshiro, MeMe Collier, Susan Harness, Meredith Ireland, Mariama J. Lockington, Lisa Nopachai, Stefany Valentine, Matthew Salesses, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Eric Smith, Jenny Heijun Wills, Sun Yung Shin, Foreword by Rebecca Carroll, Afterword by JaeRan Kim, MSW, PhD

My Thoughts: This is a much needed collection that provides an excellent collections of stories representing the adoptee experience. There are so few adopted characters in YA literature and of those few, rarely are those stories told by adoptees. I first heard about this book through Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen, who is an adoption studies scholar and was happy to finally get to read it this week.

In some of these stories adoption is a huge focus, but in some, while the main character is an adoptee, that isn’t really a major part of the plot. It’s a strength that there are such a variety of ways that the adoptees are portrayed. There is a poet, a relative of a queen, a road tripper, a person learning indigenous ways, two people on farms, someone who speaks to ghosts, and many more characters. The majority of the tales are contemporary realistic fiction, but one is sci-fi, one happens in a mythical queendom and two might be described as speculative fiction. One also has a comic format.

Each story feels distinct and unique, but there are common threads of identity, belonging, questioning, loss, anger, love, pain, and healing. Who am I? Where and who do I come from? Am I enough? Where do I fit? and so many other questions are asked and sometimes answered in these narratives. Like anyone coming of age, these teens are wondering so much about themselves, but living as adoptees adds another layer as they navigate the world and their place in it.

Recommendation: Get it now! This is a fantastic collection that many readers will connect with in many ways. It’s an excellent way for adoptees to possibly see some of their experiences on the page of a book and for others, this will be a way to possible see things from that perspective. Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung have gathered together a talented group of authors and we’re fortunate to have this anthology in the world.

Publisher: HarperCollins Pages: 352 Availability: On shelves now Review Copy: Digital ARC

[kinglindwyrm]

“They must have detected that I was rotted on the inside. A fragrant peace with a festering pit made bad by a beetle consuming it from the inside out. They must have seen something bad deep within me, because they discarded me even though I was beautiful on the outside.” (Jenny Heijun Wills, Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related.)

[ID: A painting of a cockroach emerging from the inside of a rotting persimmon. The spot it is crawling out of is irritated and bloody like a wound, and there is a pool of blood surrounding the persimmon. On one side the blood trails off, as though the persimmon has been moved or dragged. END ID]

[villenatale]

Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. by Jenny Heijun Wills

[melancholiaenthroned]

wip but i was fighting for my life cutting out this cockroach i was like ooo i dont need to get up and get an exacto knife i have craft scissors:-) and by the time i got to the last leg i thought i was gonna have a heart attack

[apple25n]

Asian-White Book Recommendations  

My father is French-Swiss while my mother is Singaporean-Chinese. I grew up in Singapore for the first 18 years of my life, and went to international schools the whole time. I had never thought about my heritages or cultures much (though I cannot tell if that's a product of being young or growing up in a place that understood my mix). When I moved overseas to Canada for university last year, I felt confronted by race and perceived differently by others for the first time. Everyone was mixed where I came from, but now none of my roommates had ever had a bubble tea or raclette in their lives.

Ever since then, I have been slowly reflecting on my identity. Over the course of the past year I have sought out and read books (both fiction and non-fiction) from other Asian/White mixed authors to help me understand myself and my feelings. Here, I have compiled a small list of the best books I have read so far dealing with being mixed.

Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills

Though not technically mixed, Wills is Korean but was adopted by a Canadian family and grew up in North America. Most chapters don't run for more than a couple pages and read almost like poetry with the lyrical and metaphoric language. Reuniting with her Korean parents as an adult, Wills details the painful emotions of feeling like you don't belong to either culture you are from -yet yearning to be accepted as a 'true' citizen of both.

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong / The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian King

I am grouping these two memoirs together because of their similar topics and because I read them in close succession. Discussing being Asian-American, Hong and King also delve into the history of Asian immigrants in the United States and the community's evolution over the decades. I found the authors very angry and aggressive in their writing, but I have also not experienced the level of discrimination they have gone through as I grew up in Asia.

Parachutes by Kelly Yang

The only fiction book on this list, Yang tells the story Claire Wang who is sent from her home in Shanghai to attend a high school in the United States alone. Moving to Canada for university, I found myself relating to this YA novel a lot more than I had expected. How people around me treated me differently because I was an international student and the 'Crazy Rich Asian' lifestyle they assumed I have. The difficulty of trying to make friends with local students; finding myself gravitating to other Asian international students.

Small Bodies of Water / Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai by Nina Mingya Powles

Two books by the same author. Powles is the author I have enjoyed reading the most out of everyone on this list. She weaves her thoughts on being mixed (Chinese-Malay and New-Zealander) into stories exploring other themes: Small Bodies of Water is a collection of essays about her relationship with water, while Tiny Moons details the food she ate during her year abroad in Shanghai. Powles put into words my frustration at not being able to speak Chinese (my mother's language) while also celebrating the different cultures she comes from.

Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow

Much more of an exploration of grief with Chow writing about her mother's death. This was the first book I read where the author also called her grandfather the same name I call mine - Gong Gong. A deeply moving book, it deals with Asian families; the hurt and love they give you.

If you have any recommendations for books on being mixed, please send them my way! I am especially looking for books that are about other countries than the United States (as I have found I relate less to Asian-American experiences than other Asian-White countries/cultures).

[zalrb]

Hey Zal. Do you have any books written by women that you’d recommend? I know Toni Morrison is amazing, any others?

Dorothy Alison, Jamaica Kincaid, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Cherie Dimaline, Gayl Jones, Dionne Brand, Olive Senior, Andrea Levy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Emily Yoon, Shivanee Ramlochan, Michelle Cliff, Octavia Butler, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Nalo Hopkinson, Chelene Knight, Esi Edugyan, Pamela Mordecai, Makeda Silvera, NourbeSe Phillips, Eva Crocker, Norma Dunning, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Jenny Heijun Wills, Alicia Elliott, Canisia Lubrin, Lillian Allen, Zadie Smith, ZZ Packer, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Janice Galloway, Sandra Cisneros, Margo Jefferson, Melanie Florence, Camille Rankin, Eden Robinson, Bernadine Evaristo, Kelley Armstrong, Heather O’Neill, Tanya Talaga, Kai Cheng Thom, Flannery O’Connor

[gregsantospoet]

Here’s a throwback to Jenny Heijun Wills’ (@jennyheijunwills) make-up inspired by the cover of Ghost Face. Wills shared this “book look” last year for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month before my book had come out yet. Totally honoured! Check out the original Tweet from 2020 at the following link: (https://twitter.com/jennyheijun/status/1259487884014432256?s=21) . . . #gregsantos #ghostfacepoetry #booklook #booksandmakeup #jennyheijunwills #bookstagram #AsianHeritageMonth #AAPIHM #aapi #aapiheritagemonth #adopteevoices https://www.instagram.com/p/COvpHpktoqEUCb8pC03q-JcHGzylY6t9OQOAgw0/?igshid=189ux1r8hx8cr

[thesuzanne]

Publications round-up

It’s been a busy year in my writing studio with more doing and less promoting. Time to share some of what I’ve been up to!

Blog post about the writing craft:

Writing from a state of calm for Sarah Selecky’s Writing School

Recent interviews:

Cover story on Giller Prize shortlisted author Alix Ohlin, for Quill & Quire.

Interview with Writers’ Trust Prize shortlisted author Jenny Heijun Wills, for Hazlitt.

Canada’s Walk of Fame interviews for this year’s magazine: Cindy Klassen, Triumph, Will Arnett, Jim Treliving and Frank Gehry (links to come)

[melancholiaenthroned]

JENNY HEIJUN WILLS REPOSTED MY ART TO HER INSTAGRAM WHEKFJAJJFAKNF

[zalrb]

Do you read non-fiction books? Any recommendations?

I don’t really but My Mind Spread Out on The Ground by Alicia Elliott, Older Sister Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills, Zami by Audre Lorde is a hybrid of memoir and fiction too