MAKING LOVE WITH THE LAND

Sold at auction in a two-book deal to Knopf Canada, from the bestselling, internationally published, and award-winning novel Jonny Appleseed, a much-anticipated work of non-fiction that braids forms and ruminates on what it means to live intersectionally, for readers of Maggie Nelson and Rachel Cusk

I'm writing today to share some exciting updates pertaining to a literary non-fiction title from our Frankfurt 2021 hotlist that just published here in Canada – MAKING LOVE WITH THE LAND by Joshua Whitehead.

You'll possibly recall that the book was acquired at auction in a two-book deal by Knopf Canada. The University of Minnesota Press will be publishing in the US in November, and French rights have been acquired by Memoire d'encrier.

Following its Canadian publication on Aug. 23rd, we're excited to announce that the book is officially a national bestseller, having landed on both the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail's lists! It's also received a great deal of praise, some of which I'll include below:

“While some of the pieces [in Making Love with the Land] are celebratory, honoring the homeland implied in his title, others are mournful. . . Throughout, Whitehead is a lyric poet writing in prose, proudly declaring himself to be “transgressive [and] punk”—and, very clearly, a survivor. An elegiac and elegant book of revelations, confessions, and reverberations.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Daringly experimental in form and refreshingly radical in message. . . [Making Love with the Land] is a groundbreaking exploration. . . and a testament to the idea that our stories are so much more than our traumas.” —Xtra

“Joshua Whitehead is one of those rare writers: he can turn his hand to any form and make it his own. . . Making Love with the Land is a series of essays with a fluidity, as you might expect from Whitehead, between form and subject.” —Toronto Star

"[Making Love With the Land] defies categorization. . . mov[ing] between genres and languages in a series of essays that open up a whole new window on the meaning of Canadian literature.” —Maclean's

“Defiantly artful. . . alert to so much of the beauty and the terror of the world. . . While reading, I was entirely overcome with gratitude. . . A truly dazzling feat of heart, analysis, and sentence-making.” —Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A History of My Brief Body

“In this essay collection, Joshua Whitehead pushes at the possibilities of form, and the results are consistently a mix of the revelatory and the sublime. A chiaroscuro of self-questioning directed inward as a way to go outward—affectionate, resolute, playful, and wise. Brilliant lessons learned are on offer here, but more as an invitation to re-experience what you might not know you know.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays

“In his latest ‘wonderwork,' Whitehead continues his signature and significant mission to undo colonial notions of genre, pushing the boundaries of memoir and cultural commentary into a wholly new, otherworldly terrain. Here, he makes love with body, kin, queerness, and music, demonstrating how making love isn't just an act of pleasure, but also one of grief, pain and sometimes even solitude. A voice to listen to, learn from, cherish.” —Vivek Shraya, Author of People Change and I'm Afraid of Men

We think that this work of non-fiction – a moving and deeply personal excavation of Indigenous beauty and passion – will resonate with readers of Maggie Nelson and Rachel Cusk. . .

In the last few years, following the publication of his debut novel Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead has emerged as one of the most exciting and important new voices on Turtle Island. Now, in this first non-fiction work, Whitehead brilliantly explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationships between body, language and land through a variety of genres (essay, memoir, notes, confession). Making Love with the Land is a startling, heart wrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person "in the rupture" between identities. In sharp, surprising, unique pieces—a number of which have already won awards—Whitehead illuminates this particular moment, in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are navigating new (and old) ideas about "the land." He asks: What is our relationship and responsibility towards it? And how has the land shaped our ideas, our histories, our very bodies?

Here is an intellectually thrilling, emotionally captivating love song—a powerful revelation about the library of stories land and body hold together, waiting to be unearthed and summoned into word.

Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of the novel Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press), which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for a Governor General's Literary Award in Fiction, and the poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks), which was shortlisted for the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award for Most Significant Work of Poetry in English and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. Currently, he is working on a PhD in Indigenous Literatures and Cultures at the University of Calgary's English department (Treaty 7).