Some of Jonny's origin story comes from poems Whitehead wrote that were eventually cut from his first book, 'Full Metal Indigiqueer,' which he writes was, in some ways, more autobiographical than 'Jonny Appleseed.' Whitehead and Jonnyboth have powerful, meaningful dreams, and deep relationships with the women in their lives. 'I am queer, femme/iskwewayi, male/nâpew, and situated this way in relation to my homelands and communities.'

Like Jonny, Whitehead is two-spirit, an identity that 'means much more than simply my sexual preference within Western ways of knowing,' he writes in the essay On Ekphrasis and Emphasis. The essays explore Whitehead's queerness and indigeneity, the trauma of colonialism and the interplay between body, land and text. 'I really tried hard to address all of the questions that I got from audiences and interviews and in the Q-and-A's.' I kind of feel like 'Making Love With the Land' is that with Jonny,' said Whitehead, who is an Oji-Cree member of Peguis First Nation. 'If you kind of pull the curtain back, you get to see the magician that is Oz. With the collection of 10 essays published this week, Whitehead said he sought to clarify the difference between the two, offering insight about himself and the Jonny character whose unapologetic queerness resonated with thousands of readers after his novel won 'Canada Reads' last year. Readers and journalists alike tripped over his identity, in some cases calling him Jonny instead of Josh, Whitehead writes in his new book, 'Making Love With the Land.' They assumed the character's biographical details were true of the author, too.

TORONTO - After the critical success of his2018 novel 'Jonny Appleseed,' writer Joshua Whitehead found himself fielding questions that mistook him for his protagonist.

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