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Synopses & Reviews
One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books by LGBTQ Authors
Emerson Whitney writes, "Really, I can't explain myself without making a mess." What follows is that mess — electrifying, gorgeous, defiant.
At Heaven's center, Whitney seeks to understand their relationship to their mother and grandmother, those first windows into womanhood and all its consequences. Whitney retraces a roving youth in deeply observant, psychedelic prose — all the while folding in the work of thinkers like Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, and C. Riley Snorton — to engage transness and the breathing, morphing nature of selfhood.
An expansive examination of what makes us up, Heaven wonders what role our childhood plays in who we are. Can we escape the discussion of causality? Is the story of our body just ours? With extraordinary emotional force, Whitney sways between theory and memory in order to explore these brazen questions and write this unforgettable book.
Review
"A poetic, candid, probing reckoning with childhood, the maternal, gender, and the possibilities of theory which will both speak to its time and outlast it."
Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
Review
"Exploring & exploding gender, language, desire, this book is necessary reading for anyone who's used language, who has had a mother, who has a body at all." Sam Sax, author of Madness
Review
"Elegantly poetic, beautiful, brutal, and wise, an unflinching dive into trauma and mothers, bodies and gender. Written with the detached, observant eye of a memoirist and embroidered with theory, Heaven is a wonder."
Michelle Tea, author of Valencia and Modern Tarot
Review
"An incisive, nuanced inquiry into gender and body." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Emerson Whitney is the author of the poetry title Ghost Box (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014). Emerson teaches in the BFA creative writing program at Goddard College and is the Dana and David Dornsife Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California.