Johanna Hedva is a Korean American writer, artist, and musician who lives between Los Angeles and New York, and was raised in LA by a family of witches. Hedva is the author of the 2024 essay collection How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom, which won the Amber Hollibaugh Award for LGBTQ Social Justice Writing. They are also the author of the novel Your Love Is Not Good, which was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, and the novel On Hell, which was named one of Dennis Cooper’s favorites of 2018. Their latest book, My Knife Collection and Other Subjects of Desire, will be published in November 2026 by Sming Sming Books. Their artwork has been shown internationally, most recently in the Seoul Mediacity Biennial, at the HAU Berlin, and in solo exhibitions in New York City at CARA (opening in September 2026), in Los Angeles at JOAN and London at TINA; and in group exhibitions at Gropius Bau, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Amant Foundation, Performance Space New York, Seoul Museum of Art, the 14th Shanghai Biennial, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Modern Art Oxford, and MASS MoCA. Their albums are Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House (2021) and The Sun and the Moon (2019). Their essay “Sick Woman Theory,” published in 2016, has been translated into 11 languages. In 2024, they were a Disability Futures Fellow, and they are currently a 2026 USA Fellow.

Photo by Ian Byers-Gamber