Both Jonny and ZOA (the protagonist of full-metal) are returning in some small semblances in my new writing as well so stay tuned! My characters always know when it’s their time. It’s funny how the smallest of ideas or characters can live within you for some time and it’s my job as a storyteller to listen to their needs, desires, demands. He began as a short story, then a novella, and then finally, in full NDN glitter princess fashion he finally said, “Ah, for hell sakes just write a damn novel about me already.” When I excised the “beach” poems, as I call them, from full-metal indigiqueer, Jonny returned pining for me to write him into the world-well, more like demanded of me to write him. But within that cast of characters was Jonny, this hyper-femme, contemplative, seductive existentialist. Joshua Whitehead: Jonny first arrived to me about a decade ago while I was trying to write a young adult novel about a handful of Indigenous beatniks in Selkirk, MB, that I tentatively titled the “Concrete Poets.” It was a mess of a story, hah, and was more an attempt at a writing exercise than anything-it was more like me trying to write white. How did Jonny first arrive for you? And how and when did you know you had a novel on your hands? Trevor Corkum: Jonny Appleseed is such a gorgeous, gutsy novel-full of love, despair, bravado, deep tenderness, and truthful desire. Currently he is working on a PhD in Indigenous Literatures and Cultures in the University of Calgary's English department (Treaty 7). Jonny Appleseed is his first novel.
He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer ( Talonbooks, 2017) and the winner of the Governor General's History Award for the Indigenous Arts and Stories Challenge in 2016. Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). It’s a stirring and bold debut, one which Alicia Elliott, writing in the Globe and Mail, says “creates a dream-like reading experience-and with a narrator as wise, funny and loveable as Jonny, it’s the sort of dream you don’t want to wake up from.” In the meantime, he recalls stories of love, heartbreak, and longing as he casts a wise and world-weary look back over his young life.
Jonny Appleseed introduces us to a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer named Jonny, who moves from the rez to the big city but is called back home to return to a family funeral. Joshua Whitehead’s first novel packs a gorgeous punch. It’s a stirring and bold debut, one which Alicia Elliott, writing in the Globe and Mail, says “creates a dream-like reading experience-and with a narrator as wise, funny and loveable as Jonny, it’s the sort of dream you don’t want to wake up from.”
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