Devery Jacobs championed the 2018 novel Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, which won Canada Reads 2021.

Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw Indigiqueer scholar from Peguis First Nation. His work seeks to centre the unique experiences of queer Indigenous young people. His 2017 debut poetry collection, full-metal indigiqueer, is a collection of experimental poems that aim to provoke discussion and debate.

Jonny Appleseed, his first novel, is about a two-spirit person trying to put his life back together following the death of his stepfather. The book was longlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for gay fiction.

His first nonfiction book, Making Love with the Land, was published in 2022 and is a collection of essays exploring Indigeneity and queerness, as well as mental and physical health.

Whitehead completed a PhD in Indigenous literatures and cultures at the University of Calgary's English department, where he is now an assistant professor.

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