Joshua Whitehead facts for kids
Joshua Whitehead is a talented Canadian First Nations writer. He is known for his poetry and novels. Joshua is also a two spirit person, which is an important identity in many Indigenous cultures.
Joshua is a member of the Oji-Cree people from the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba. He started writing and publishing poetry while he was studying at the University of Winnipeg.
His First Books
After his studies, Joshua continued learning about Indigenous stories and writings at the University of Calgary. In 2017, a publisher called Talonbooks released his first poetry book. It was titled Full-Metal Indigiqueer.
His first novel, Jonny Appleseed, came out in 2018. It was published by Arsenal Pulp Press. This book quickly gained a lot of attention.
Winning Awards
Jonny Appleseed was nominated for many important literary awards. It was considered for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction. These are some of Canada's biggest book awards.
The book won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction in 2019. This award celebrates books that explore gay themes. In 2021, Jonny Appleseed also won the Canada Reads competition. This is a popular national book debate in Canada.
Editing Anthologies
Joshua Whitehead also edited a collection of stories called Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction. This book features stories by other Indigenous writers who are also two-spirit or indigiqueer. Speculative fiction means stories that imagine future or fantasy worlds.
This anthology won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Anthology in 2021. It included stories from writers like Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, Darcie Little Badger, and David Alexander Robertson.
