Hedva. J. (2025). How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom. New York: Hellman Grad Books. Review by Josefien Cornette

Korean-American writer, artist, and musician Johanna Hedva is maybe most well known for their essay Sick Woman Theory (2016), a text written during a flare-up in bed as critical and political analysis through the concept of ‘the sick woman’. Sick Woman Theory has been translated from English into dozens of languages. As Hedva mentions themselves, the essay has made its way into ‘covens, hackerspaces, queer hair salons, and crip collectives around the world’ (Hedva, 2025, p. 9). This essay is also part of their new book How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom, which is a collection of essays, notes, letters, and other literary extracts. In general, Hedva’s work intertwines witchcraft, political activism, performance, poetry, and music, while exploring different modes of knowledge. Written through a hyper-American lens, the book exemplifies artistic research and critical analysis, delving into what it means for them to be disabled.