Jenny Heijun Wills is the author of Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. It won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for non-fiction (2019) and the Eileen McTavish Sykes First Book Award (2020). She teaches in the Department of English at the University of Winnipeg.
At the end of last year I won a contest from She Does The City and the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust. The prize was a copy of each of the shortlisted books in the non-fiction category. A box full of books? Count me in! I loved Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. It was beautiful and powerful. I also felt a connection to Jenny because I am very familiar with and currently live in the small(ish) town in Southern-Ontario where she was raised. We connected on social media shortly after I finished reading her book, and I only wish we had connected sooner in person. These last several months I’ve enjoyed her book looks (makeup looks based on book covers) because of the makeup artistry and also because I’ve gotten recommendations to add to my reading list.
Has Covid affected your writing at all in terms of frequency or content?
Covid affected my teaching schedule most directly, but of course that impacts my writing life too, I think. These days I am writing nearly every day during the week, which feels productive. But that pattern didn’t start until mid July.
Why did you start doing book looks?
I saw Terese Mason Pierre doing some book looks and of course was inspired. She is so talented! Domenica Martinello and some other people were doing them before, so there are lots of influences and motivators. But they did start for me around the time that Covid began and I was inspired to find a way to link my love for makeup and aesthetics with my passion for reading. What’s more, I knew that many authors (including debut writers) would be missing out on launch opportunities. I thought this could be a playful way to show people their works are wonderful and are reaching audiences.
Your looks feature BIPoC authors. Do you also use BIPoC makeup brands?
Yes, I only do BIPoC-authored texts. But this was also an obvious decision for me as I teach race studies and so I also (almost) exclusively teach BIPoC authored literatures. Some of the BIPoC owned makeup brands I like to use include SugarPill, PatMcGrath Labs, and Beauty Bakerie.
What is the most complex look you’ve done so far?
I think the one for Tyler Johnson was Here by Jay Coles took the longest time to paint. I wanted to mimic the illustration of flowers on the cover as accurately as I could. And Sonja Boon’s What the Oceans Remember took a long time because I was researching to make sure I wasn’t doing anything appropriative or culturally insensitive. It’s not even that complex, but there are longitudinal lines on the book cover and, not knowing much about cartography or globes or anything, I didn’t want to do something hurtful and glib like paint the meridians of the Middle Passage in eyeliner. So that took a long while to work on, because I didn’t even know where to start with my research.
Has anyone ever done a look inspired by your book?
Terese was so generous to do one and it was beautiful as all her looks are. And book bloggers always stage books in such beautiful and artful ways :) My partner decided to paint my book on my face the other night. It was hilarious.
For people who aren’t familiar with the world of traditional publishing, can you share how much creative control you had over your own book cover?
Right. So my editor tells me (I don’t remember, but it totally sounds like me) that I had a firm “no” about what I wouldn’t appreciate on the cover of my memoir—which I provided before the design work began. From what I understand, the designer, Terri Nimo, made the cover and there was a meeting at PRH to discuss? There was a unanimous agreement on the proposal and then I was sent a copy of the cover art. It surprised me because somehow I thought this was a purple book. But I think the work Terri did is stunning and I love it. Down to the wingdings inside the book. All of it. And the paper used on the cover was an important choice too. Meant to mimic the texture of fabric because the image on the cover is of Korean quilting.
What is your best makeup tip or hack?
I use gift-wrapping tape (so it is not too sticky) on the outer corners of my eye, like on a diagonal upwards toward my temples, and then use that straight edge as a stencil for my liquid eyeliner wing. It’s hard to explain!
What’s one piece of advice you have for emerging BIPoC writers?
Speak to your communities and kin. There are ways to write that are a nod, a wink, a secret gesture to our own communities that fly under the radar of other readers. So even if the broader audience changes for the work, there are those small expressions of care that will be registered by your special reader.
To stay up to date with Jenny follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
Interview by Glodeane Brown
Author photos and author book cover photo provided by Jenny Heijun Wills
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