Sheila Heti

In 2019, the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University co-organized an exhibition of a newly commissioned body of work by the Canadian artist Liz Magor. The accompanying publication, Liz Magor: BLOWOUT, is the artist’s first US catalog in ten years, and it features thorough photographic documentation of the new work, commissioned texts by Mitch Speed and Sheila Heti, and a conversation between the artist and curators Dan Byers and Solveig Øvstebø. For more than four decades, Magor’s practice has quietly dramatized the relationships that develop among objects, and she describes this body of work as “a collection of tiny and intense narratives.” Each written contribution responds in its own way to Magor’s new installations, which feature altered stuffed toys, bits of paper, and rat skins—sculptural “agents,” in the artist’s words—suspended in transparent Mylar box forms, and thirty-two pairs of secondhand shoes, each displayed within its own box amidst elaborate embellishments.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Women in Clothes is a book unlike any other. It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities--famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old--on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives. It began with a survey. The editors composed a list of more than fifty questions designed to prompt women to think more deeply about their personal style. Writers, activists, and artists including Cindy Sherman, Kim Gordon, Kalpona Akter, Sarah Nicole Prickett, Tavi Gevinson, Miranda July, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, and Molly Ringwald answered these questions with photographs, interviews, personal testimonies, and illustrations. Even our most basic clothing choices can give us confidence, show the connection between our appearance and our habits of mind, express our values and our politics, bond us with our friends, or function as armor or disguise. They are the tools we use to reinvent ourselves and to transform how others see us. Women in Clothes embraces the complexity of women's style decisions, revealing the sometimes funny, sometimes strange, always thoughtful impulses that influence our daily ritual of getting dressed.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker - A New York Times Critics Top Book of the Year - Named Best Nonfiction of the Year by Literary Hub and Electric Literature - One of The Los Angeles Times's 15 Best Books of the Year - One of The New Statesman's 20 Best Books of the Year Sheila Heti collected 500,000 words from a decade's worth of journals, put the sentences in a spreadsheet, and sorted them alphabetically. She cut and cut and was left with 60,000 words of brilliance and mayhem, joy and sorrow. These are her alphabetical diaries.

Named a Recommended Read of the Year by The New Yorker and a New York Times Critics Top Book of the YearOne of The Los Angeles Times's 15 Best Books of the YearOne of The New Statesman's 20 Best Books of the YearAn Electric Literature and Literary Hub Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A thrilling confessional from the award-winning, beloved author of Pure Colour.Sheila Heti collected 500,000 words from a decade's worth of journals, put the sentences in a spreadsheet, and sorted them alphabetically. She cut and cut and was left with 60,000 words of brilliance and mayhem, joy and sorrow. These are her alphabetical diaries.

Hvordan skal et menneske leve – det spørgsmål har Sheila Heti beskæftiget sig med fra begyndelsen af sit forfatterskab. I bogen her udfolder hun det i forhold til en bestemt problemstilling: Skal hun, der nærmer sig de 40, få et barn eller ej? Moderskab er en dagbog i romanform, skrevet af en forfatter der er fundamentalt i tvivl om hvordan hendes voksne liv skal se ud. Og som i stedet for at gøre hvad hendes krop, veninderne og kulturen tilskynder hende til – altså få et barn – sætter sig for at undersøge moderskabet fra alle tænkelige vinkler, for med åbne øjne at kunne træffe den beslutning, der er rigtig for hende. Moderskab handler om identitet, parforhold, kærlighed, mødre, om konflikten og lighederne mellem at føde børn og skabe kunst. Det er også en bog om livsvalg og om tiden – hvordan den går, og hvad der sker mens vi venter. En overrumplende, åbenhjertig bog der både litterært og eksistentielt går nye veje. "Alvorlig og tør, når den vender og drejer, hvordan man vælger og ikke vælger at få børn, og pludseligt i et glimt helt vidunderligt sjov." - Soundvenue, 5 stjerner "Sheila Heti skriver skarpt og ublufærdigt om den måske sværeste beslutning i livet. (...) - Politiken, 4 hjerter"Når 'Moderskab' er bedst, agerer bogen som en art fremkaldervæske for kæpheste og idiosynkrasier, for ideer om, hvad en "rigtig" kvinde er, hvad det gode liv er." - Information

Sheila Heti collected hald a millions words from a decade's worth of journals, put them in a spreadsheet, and sorted them alphabetically. She spent the next ten years cutting and refining, and was left with 60,000 words of brilliance and mayhem, joy and sorrow. These are her alphabetical diaries.

Named a Recommended Read of the Year by The New Yorker and a New York Times Critics Top Book of the YearOne of The Los Angeles Times's 15 Best Books of the YearOne of The New Statesman's 20 Best Books of the YearAn Electric Literature and Literary Hub Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A thrilling confessional from the award-winning, beloved author of Pure Colour.Sheila Heti collected 500,000 words from a decade's worth of journals, put the sentences in a spreadsheet, and sorted them alphabetically. She cut and cut and was left with 60,000 words of brilliance and mayhem, joy and sorrow. These are her alphabetical diaries.

A new novel about art, love, death, and time from the author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?Here we are, just living in the first draft of creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart. In this first draft, a woman named Mira leaves home for school. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira's chest like a portal--to what, she doesn't know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and she enters the strange and dizzying dimension that true loss opens up. Pure Colour tells the story of a life, from beginning to end. It is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and a shape-shifting epic. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.

** SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2023**** WINNER OF THE 2022 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD IN FICTION**Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, The Times Literary Supplement, and moreWhat if this world is just a first draft, made by some great artist in order to be destroyed?In this first draft, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira's chest like a portal - to what, she doesn't know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and she enters that strange and dizzying dimension that true loss opens up.Pure Colour tells the story of a life, from beginning to end. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling and a shape-shifting epic that is celestially bright and streaked with beauty.'Beautiful and impossible to put down. Sheila Heti is a genius.' Avni Doshi'This one-of-a-kind novel... feels nothing less than vital.' Observer'An original, a book that says something new for our difficult times.' Anne Enright, Guardian'A treat.' Stylist_______________________PRAISE FOR SHEILA HETI:'Exhilarating...it made me want to write' Sally Rooney, on How Should a Person Be?'Sheila Heti has broken new ground' Rachel Cusk, on Motherhood'Complex, artfully messy and hilarious' Miranda July, on How Should a Person Be? 'Thrilling, very funny, and almost unbearably moving' Garth Greenwell, on Motherhood'Courageous, necessary, visionary' Elif Batuman, on Motherhood

Winner of the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award in FictionShortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize in FictionNamed a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, The Times Literary Supplement, and more Pure Colour is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold. Here we are, just living in the first draft of Creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart. In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira's chest like a portal--to what, she doesn't know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she's left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.

A brilliant, meandering exploration of family and childhood memory by one of the most original British philosophers of the twentieth century. Germs is about first things, the seeds from which a life grows, as well as about the illnesses it incurs, the damage it sustains. Written at the end of the life of Richard Wollheim, a major British philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century, this memoir is not the usual story of growing up, but very much about childhood, that early world we all share in which we do not not know either the world or ourselves for sure, and in which things--houses, clothes, meals, parents, the past--loom large around us, seeming both inevitable and uncontrollable. Richard Wollheim's remarkable, moving, and entirely original book recovers this formative moment that makes us who we are before we really are who we are and that haunts us all our lives in lucid and lyrical prose.

**A Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Irish Times, Refinery29, TLS and The White Review Book of the Year 2018** A provocative novel about the desire and duty to procreate, from the author of the critically acclaimed How Should A Person Be? Motherhood treats one of the most consequential decisions of early adulthood - whether or not to have children - with the intelligence, wit and originality that have won Sheila Heti international acclaim. Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti’s narrator considers, with the same urgency, whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, body, family, friends, mysticism and chance, she struggles to make a moral and meaningful choice. In a compellingly direct mode that straddles the forms of the novel and the essay, Motherhood raises radical and essential questions about womanhood, parenthood, and how - and for whom - to live. ‘Likely to become the defining literary work on the subject’ Guardian

From the author of How Should a Person Be? ("one of the most talked-about books of the year"--Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti's intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how--and for whom--to live.

Sheila Heti, author of the acclaimed How a Person Should Be? and coeditor of the best-selling anthology Women in Clothes, along with the students of 826 Valencia writing lab will edit this year's anthology. Their compilation includes new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, and the category-defying gems that have become one of the hallmarks of this lively collection.

From the author of How Should a Person Be? ("one of the most talked-about books of the year"--Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring audiobook about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti's intimate and urgent audiobook considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original audiobook that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how--and for whom--to live.

From the author of How Should a Person Be? ("one of the most talked-about books of the year"--Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti's intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how--and for whom--to live.