Mixed Up
Mixed up explores the plethora of challenges and celebrations that Johnny experiences being of mixed ancestry! This book started out as a solo theatre piece in 2017, it was being written by Johnny and was to be performed by him but due to the pandemic it pivoted into a book. The vision of the book will be a hybrid: there will be poems, writing and illustrations. At this point in the creation of this book, Johnny has no idea who the target audience will be or age group. This story will land where it needs to!! Johnny hopes that sharing this story will help others who are also mixed (up) and struggling with their identity!
In 2025, I was feeling very stuck when telling my story. I was content with the content, but I felt that it was missing something? What was missing? A witness, that is what this story needed. Culturally, this is so necessary for storytelling, someone to share the experience with. Who could this be? Sometimes, often, it is so obvious! In late 2025 I reached out to Amy Reiswig, someone I knew that was in my community who had many years of writing and editing experience. And important to me, I highly respected. I sent off an email. Her reply was yes!
Since then, we have met a few times, and I am so thrilled with where this story is going with her as co-author. The story is taking flight.
Here is some information about Amy and if you would like to know more, her website is below too:
With a BA and MA in English literature from McGill University, Amy began her 25 years of word work editing survivor testimonies at McGill’s Holocaust oral history archive and teaching college courses in human rights literature, literature of trauma, and prison writing. Since then, Amy has authored over 120 articles – book reviews, artist profiles, travel articles, and personal prose – in publications such as the Literary Review of Canada, CBC’s First Person, The Walrus, This Magazine, Focus, The Malahat Review, The British Columbia Review, and more. From mythic music in the Faroe Islands, to First Nations leaders fighting for land protection in BC, to the experience of Toronto’s homeless during COVID, listening and learning is at the heart of her work. She currently writes from a converted garden shed on beautiful SḴŦAḴ / Mayne Island, BC.
Amy’s website:
https://www.amyreiswig.ca/
Announcement, a new working title: Finding Johnny, with Amy beside him!
Johnny and Amy plan to have a manuscript ready to submit to potential publishers for Spring 2027!
