"Emerson Whitney''s Heaven delves into deep memory and deep thinking to offer an ''account of oneself'' that questions, if not upends, the very idea of such a thing at every turn. The result is 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 The Argonauts "I scream Mommy! because motherhood is a monstrous act, a collection of primal moments wanting to disassociate and become a person and Emerson has written a story about Mommy and me but mainly they''re extending to us a forceful act of writing in defense of the self that is taking pictures, running away - eyes full of tears, then pirouetting, and standing their ground to tell us this colossally wonderful and woefully broken story." -Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls and I Must Be Living Twice "Heaven goes down like a strong elixir: a brainy, tender memoir composed of radiant and wrenching sentences. I can still feel its heat swirling through me." -Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me "Whitney''s HEAVEN, although prose, is poetry. The language is tender and present. The word performs connection and recovery.

The sentence''s movement is surgical and beautiful, critically affirming as it reflects, exposes, and observes a "mother''s love that has always been the most painful part of their body, a stigmata kind." Adeptly done, theory from such thinkers as Butler, Foucault, Freud, Haraway, Irigaray, and Lacan are broken down to its lived practical parts and brought back into common parlance, brought in relation to the etymology that is Whitney''s becoming." -Arisa White, author of You''re The Most Beautiful Thing That Happened "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 "Someone asked me recently if I ever imagine writing from today that has the strength to remain in print centuries from now. ''Yes, I do,'' I said, and told them about a book by Emerson Whitney called Heaven. Every page is beautifully written, pitch-perfect harrowing, but maybe more important is how it changes many things we thought we understood about life. Hundreds of years from now, readers can better appreciate this time and this nation through Emerson Whitney''s extraordinary lens, where they write, ''The history of categorization around disability in the United States was always about social control.

''" -CAConrad, author of While Standing in Line for Death "All the best prose is written by poets! Emerson Whitney''s Heaven leaps between memory, story, and citation to build a joy/grief work of auto-theory. 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 "Once, they said writers responded to the call of the Muse. These days they say writers compose out of their deepest obsessions. For Emerson Whitney, it is one and the same: Heaven is the book of deepest affections, a harrowing book, a bewitched book. Composed in a style of Maggie Nelson''s Bluets, or--to be more precise-- in a style of a bird-nest, Heaven weaves together multiple threads of conversation with self and with with brilliant voices of others, as different as Lacan and Jos Charles, Allen Ginsberg and Michael Ondaatje. One can''t help but be moved by this compelling record, this book of hours for pain made utterly beautiful by its author''s patient meditation on childhood and gender, motherhood and sorrow." -Ilya Kaminksy, author of Deaf Republic "An incisive, nuanced inquiry into gender and body.

" -- Kirkus (starred review) "Melodic and engagingly written, Heaven will enrapture anyone who loves reading for beauty and intellectual challenge at once." --Literary Hub "Emerson Whitney''s first prose book is a frank and absorbing examination of transness, brokenness, mothering, femininity, embodiment and truth." --Ms. Magazine, https://msmagazine.com/2020/01/01/reads-for-the-rest-of-us-feminist-books-coming-out-in-2020/ "Heaven is an unflinching personal examination of family and identity, bearing witness to what it means to live life on one''s own terms." --Foreword Reviews.