Jenny Heijun Wills

Jenny Heijun Wills (born 1981) is a Korean Canadian writer and scholar, whose memoir Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related (McClelland & Stewart) won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction in 2019.[1] The book also won a Manitoba Book Award in 2020 for Best First Book.[2] It was a finalist for two other book prizes.

Jenny Heijun Wills
Jenny Heijun Wills in 2023
Jenny Heijun Wills in 2023
Born1981 (age 41–42)
Seoul, South Korea
Occupation
  • Writer
  • professor of English
LanguageEnglish
CitizenshipCanadian
Years active2019–present
Notable worksOlder Sister. Not Necessarily Related
Notable awardsHilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
2019
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Winnipeg
Website
jennyheijunwills.com

Born in South Korea, she was adopted by a Canadian family in infancy and was raised in Southern Ontario.[3]

Work

Wills' memoir is about her experience meeting her birth family for the first time as an adult.[4] The book is written in fragmentary vignettes.[5] Prior to writing the book, Wills lived in Korea while she was a student (2009). The book is set in Seoul, South Korea, Montreal, Quebec, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. It also captures her childhood in Kitchener, Ontario.

Wills co-edited an anthology of academic essays entitled Adoption and Multiculturalism: Europe, the Americas and the Pacific, published by the University of Michigan Press in 2020. In 2022, she also co-edited a collection of essays, Teaching Asian North American Texts, as part of the Options for Teaching series published by the Modern Language Association. Her writing focuses on issues of race, adoption, and gender as they relate to Asian Americans and Asian Canadians.

She is a professor of English at the University of Winnipeg[3] where she is a Chancellor's Research Chair.[6] Wills holds a PhD and MA in English literature from Wilfrid Laurier University.[7] She has an undergraduate degree in English from University of Waterloo[8] and an undergraduate degree in Journalism.

Bibliography
  • Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related (2019)
  • Adoption and Multiculturalism: Europe, the Americas and the Pacific (co-editor) (2020)
  • Teaching Asian North American Texts (co-editor) (2022)

References
  1. Deborah Dundas, "Andre Alexis, Jenny Heijun Wills are big winners at Writers’ Trust Awards". Toronto Star, November 5, 2019.
  2. Yohannes, Samraweet (May 20, 2020). "Jean Teillet & Jenny Heijun Wills among winners of the 2020 Manitoba Book Awards".
  3. Nyala Ali, "Adoption experience frays fraught family bonds". Winnipeg Free Press, October 26, 2019.
  4. Jane van Koeverden, "Why Jenny Heijun Wills wrote a book about reuniting with her first family in Korea". CBC Books, October 18, 2019.
  5. Kim, E. Tammy (January 13, 2022). "Return Flights". {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  6. Prato, Liz (November 7, 2022). "Nothing and Everything: An Interview With Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills on the Fragmentation of Adoption".
  7. "Celebrating Laurier".
  8. "Class notes". University of Waterloo Magazine. 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
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