Publish Date |
August 27, 2024 |
Category |
Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs Biography & Autobiography / LGBTQ+ |
Price |
$34.95 |
ISBN: 9781039009844
Format: Hardback
Pages: 248
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: August 27, 2024
FINALIST FOR THE 2024 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • GLOBE AND MAIL'S BEST BOOKS OF 2024 • CBC BOOKS' BEST CANADIAN NONFICTION OF 2024
“Everything and Nothing At All combines memoir and cultural analysis to weave a rich and complex tapestry of identity, belonging, and rejection in the contexts of self, family, and communities both large and small. These richly decorated and incisive essays are sometimes poignant, sometimes harrowing, and always rooted deeply in Wills’ lived experience, even as she finds parallels in literature and the world at large. In elegant prose, Wills fashions a searing cultural and social commentary and a moving personal journey that considers—and challenges—what it means to be seen and unseen.” —2024 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction jury (Annahid Dashtgard, Taylor Lambert and Christina Sharpe)
“What does a book look like when it subverts narrow stories of kinship and ancestry, when it refuses to pander or be pinned down and possessed, when it upends crushing dichotomies, fixed definitions, forced choices? What does a book look like when it is brave and vulnerable and knows its true worth? It looks like this. Defiantly wise. Unbeautifully beautiful. Capaciously loving. Mutinous.” —Kyo Maclear, author of Unearthing
"In Everything and Nothing At All, Jenny Heijun Wills' lyrical voice rings with clarity and sparkles with intelligence. These essays demand your careful attention, shocking you out of complacency and forcing you to re-examine, to reimagine. This stunning, challenging book is nothing short of a gift." —Alicia Elliott, author of And Then She Fell
“Unforgettable—a startling and visceral read. In Everything and Nothing At All, Jenny Heijun Wills leads us through the bright, cool antechambers of her mind to dissect, via the lens of her own experience, the fundamentals of life itself. In prose that is searing, exacting and beautiful, Wills bends time to examine what it means––and how it feels––to be seen, unseen, wanted, unwanted, loved and unloved. This book is sharp and it is living, and it is an essential and urgent document in a world still very much trying to know itself.” —Claudia Dey, author of Daughter