Jenny Heijun Wills (born 1981) is a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer and scholar, whose memoir ''Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related'' (

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Random House of Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. ...

) won the

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer. Canada's most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner re ...

in 2019. The book also won a Manitoba Book Award in 2020 for Best First Book. It was a finalist for two other book prizes. Born in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, she was adopted by a Canadian family in infancy and was raised in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

.Nyala Ali
"Adoption experience frays fraught family bonds"
''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

'', October 26, 2019.

Work

Wills' memoir is about her experience meeting her birth family for the first time as an adult. The book is written in fragmentary vignettes. Prior to writing the book, Wills lived in Korea while she was a student (2009). The book is set in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, South Korea,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. It also captures her childhood in Kitchener,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. 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 The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including ...

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 Asian Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their Ancestor, ancestry to Asia, the continent of Asia. Canadians with Asian ancestry comprise both the largest and fastest growing group in Canada, after European Canadians, wi ...

. She is a professor of English at the

University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gra ...

where she is a Chancellor's Research Chair. Wills holds a PhD and MA in English literature from

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...

. She has an undergraduate degree in English from

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

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

21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian memoirists Canadian writers of Asian descent Canadian people of Korean descent University of Winnipeg faculty Writers from Winnipeg Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century memoirists Canadian women memoirists {{Canada-writer-stub Adoptees