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Everything and nothing at all : essays  Cover Image Book Book

Everything and nothing at all : essays / Jenny Heijun Wills.

Summary:

"From Hilary Weston Prize-winning author Jenny Heijun Wills comes a new collection of piercing, breathtaking essays on beauty, identity, and language -- as well as the grey zones that exist between and within these notions of self. As an adoptee, Jenny Heijun Wills has spent her life navigating the spaces of race and ethnicity. As a polyamorous, pansexual femme, she occupies a liminality between family -- adopted, biological, chosen -- and "freedom;" queerness and heteronormativity; monogamy and a constellation of love. As a person who self-harms to cope with mental illness, she moves between the desire to be beautiful and the urge to make herself ugly, preening in the limelight while daily wishing her body would disappear. And as a parent with a lifelong eating disorder, her love language is to feed, but she finds it near-impossible to consume anything herself. These facets of Jenny's personhood have served as both the anchors she has clung to, in the time before self-discovery and understanding, and the harsh parameters of what others now imagine she can be. Everything and Nothing At All weaves together literary criticism, cultural context, and personal history into a staggering tapestry of knowledge. Yet Jenny is acutely aware of the cost of this knowledge: the more she uncovers, the more parts of herself she must reconcile. And though she is guided by those who came before -- her Korean grandmother, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, even Emily Brontë, when read with intention -- and the lovers she has sewn into her life, they cannot shield her from the combined weight of this knowledge. It feels at once like everything she has been seeking in order to set herself free, and that which threatens to extinguish her, one day, into nothing at all. Devastating, illuminating, and beautifully crafted, these essays breathe life into the ambiguities and excesses of Jenny's life, where she lingers always at the intersections within the intersections of identity."-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781039009844 (hardcover)
  • Physical Description: 235 pages ; 22 cm
  • Publisher: Toronto, ON : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, [2024]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references.
Subject: Wills, Jenny Heijun.
Body image.
Pansexual people > Identity.
Self-perception.
Authors, Canadian (English) > 21st century > Biography.
Genre: Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Essays.
Personal narratives.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Cookstown Branch 819.46 Wills 31681010385896 NONFIC Available -

LDR 03187cam a2200361 i 4500
001396378
003TSUGA
00520240820110147.8
008240820s2024 onc b 000 0aeng
020 . ‡a9781039009844 (hardcover) ‡c$34.95
035 . ‡a(CaOWLBI)pr07693401
055 0. ‡aPS8645.I45696 ‡bE94 2024
090 . ‡a819.46 Wills
1001 . ‡aWills, Jenny Heijun, ‡eauthor.
24510. ‡aEverything and nothing at all : ‡bessays / ‡cJenny Heijun Wills.
264 1. ‡aToronto, ON : ‡bAlfred A. Knopf Canada, ‡c[2024]
264 4. ‡c©2024
300 . ‡a235 pages ; ‡c22 cm
336 . ‡atext ‡btxt ‡2rdacontent
337 . ‡aunmediated ‡bn ‡2rdamedia
338 . ‡avolume ‡bnc ‡2rdacarrier
504 . ‡aIncludes bibliographical references.
520 . ‡a"From Hilary Weston Prize-winning author Jenny Heijun Wills comes a new collection of piercing, breathtaking essays on beauty, identity, and language -- as well as the grey zones that exist between and within these notions of self. As an adoptee, Jenny Heijun Wills has spent her life navigating the spaces of race and ethnicity. As a polyamorous, pansexual femme, she occupies a liminality between family -- adopted, biological, chosen -- and "freedom;" queerness and heteronormativity; monogamy and a constellation of love. As a person who self-harms to cope with mental illness, she moves between the desire to be beautiful and the urge to make herself ugly, preening in the limelight while daily wishing her body would disappear. And as a parent with a lifelong eating disorder, her love language is to feed, but she finds it near-impossible to consume anything herself. These facets of Jenny's personhood have served as both the anchors she has clung to, in the time before self-discovery and understanding, and the harsh parameters of what others now imagine she can be. Everything and Nothing At All weaves together literary criticism, cultural context, and personal history into a staggering tapestry of knowledge. Yet Jenny is acutely aware of the cost of this knowledge: the more she uncovers, the more parts of herself she must reconcile. And though she is guided by those who came before -- her Korean grandmother, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, even Emily Brontë, when read with intention -- and the lovers she has sewn into her life, they cannot shield her from the combined weight of this knowledge. It feels at once like everything she has been seeking in order to set herself free, and that which threatens to extinguish her, one day, into nothing at all. Devastating, illuminating, and beautifully crafted, these essays breathe life into the ambiguities and excesses of Jenny's life, where she lingers always at the intersections within the intersections of identity."-- ‡cProvided by publisher.
591 . ‡bCanadian
60010. ‡aWills, Jenny Heijun.
650 0. ‡aBody image.
650 0. ‡aPansexual people ‡xIdentity.
650 0. ‡aSelf-perception.
650 5. ‡aAuthors, Canadian (English) ‡y21st century ‡vBiography.
655 7. ‡aBiographies. ‡2lcgft
655 7. ‡aAutobiographies. ‡2lcgft
655 7. ‡aEssays. ‡2lcgft
655 7. ‡aPersonal narratives. ‡2lcgft
852 . ‡aINNISFIL ‡bCOOKSTOWN ‡cNONFIC ‡zIn process ‡gbook ‡h819.46 Wills ‡p31681010385896
905 . ‡utechserv
901 . ‡a396378 ‡bAUTOGEN ‡c396378 ‡tbiblio ‡soclc

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