Making Love With the Land hit shelves on Tuesday.SWEETMOON PHOTOGRAPHY/The Canadian Press
After the critical success of his 2018 novel “Jonny Appleseed,” writer Joshua Whitehead found himself fielding questions that mistook him for his protagonist.
Readers and journalists alike tripped over his identity, in some cases calling him Jonny instead of Josh, Whitehead writes in his new book, “Making Love With the Land.”
They also assumed the character’s biographical details were true of the author.
With the collection of 10 essays published this week, Whitehead says he wanted to clarify the difference between the two, offering insight about himself and the Jonny character whose unapologetic queerness resonated with thousands of readers after his novel won “Canada Reads” last year.
The essays explore Whitehead’s queerness and indigeneity, the trauma of colonialism and the interplay between body, land and text.
Whitehead describes his books as part of an extended literary universe that defy traditional categorization, though he says publishers categorize them in different genres “for the sake of sales and promotion.”
“Making Love With the Land” hit shelves on Tuesday.
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