THE EXCITEMENT SURROUNDING its victory in March shot Joshua Whitehead’s debut novel Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press) to number one on Bookmanager’s paperback fiction chart. It’s a historic win: Whitehead became both the first Two-Spirit and first Indigenous author to win in its 20-year history. (The Indigenous ancestry of Joseph Boyden, who won for The Or in 2014, is widely disputed.)
Before this win, the 2018 novel about a Two- Spirit Indigenous sex worker coming home to his reservation wasn’t exactly under the radar.
It had already been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. But thanks to the passionate defence of queer Mohawk actor Devery Jacobs, winning the CBC literary competition has given the book broader exposure. Whitehead spoke to Q&Q about what it means to him to take the crown with his sex-positive, Indigiqueer debut.