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Zoe Whittall

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Zoe Whittall
Born (1976-02-16) February 16, 1976 (age 48)
Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada
OccupationWriter
Period2000s-present
Notable worksThe Best Kind of People
Bottle Rocket Hearts
Holding Still for as Long as Possible
Notable awards2008 Dayne Ogilvie Prize
2011 Lambda Literary Award for Trans Fiction
2016 K.M. Hunter Award

Zoe Whittall (born February 16, 1976)[1] is a Canadian poet, novelist and TV writer.[2][3] She has published five novels and three poetry collections to date.

Personal life and work

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Whittall was born in 1976 in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and spent her childhood on a farm on the outskirts of South Durham.[2] She graduated from Dawson College in Montreal in 1995, attended Concordia University from 1995 to 1997, and completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph in 2009.[2]

She works as a TV writer and previously worked as an arts reporter and in small press publishing. She lives in Toronto.[2]

Her first novel, Bottle Rocket Hearts, was named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year[2] and one of the top ten essential Canadian novels of the decade by CBC's Canada Reads.[4]

She won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Grant for best gay emerging writer in 2008.[5] She subsequently served on the award's 2011 jury, selecting Farzana Doctor as that year's winner.[6]

Holding Still for as Long as Possible, Whittall's second novel, was published in 2009 in Canada and 2010 in the United States.[2] It has been optioned for film, and was shortlisted for the 2010 ReLit Award.[2] It was an honour book for the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award in 2011,[7] as well as winning a Lambda Literary Award.[8]

In 2010 she published a short novella for Orca Books' Rapid Reads series called The Middle Ground, a book for adults with low literacy skills.[9]

Her poetry books include The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life, The Emily Valentine Poems and Precordial Thump.[2] She edited the short fiction anthology Geeks, Misfits & Outlaws (McGilligan Books) in 2003.[10]

In 2013 Whittall created the poem 'Unequal to me',[11] a collection of book reviews illustrating gender bias, revealing sexism and misogyny, by swapping the authors' personal pronouns indicated by the critics.[12][13]

In 2016, her novel The Best Kind of People was published in Canada by House of Anansi and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. In 2017, it was published in hardcover in the U.K. by Hodder & Stoughton, and in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The novel is currently being adapted for feature film by director Sarah Polley. The Best Kind of People was named Indigo's #1 Book of 2016, and a best book of the year by Walrus Magazine,[14] The Globe & Mail, Toronto Life, and The National Post.[15][16][17] The year also saw Whittall awarded the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for literature, given to people who have demonstrated both talent and the potential for further development in their field.[18]

In 2018, Whittall won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Series for Baroness von Sketch Show, alongside Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor, Jennifer Whalen, Jennifer Goodhue, Monica Heisey and Mae Martin.[19]

She collaborated with Noel S. Baker and Pat Mills on the screenplay for the 2024 film We Forgot to Break Up, which was directed by Karen Knox.[20]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • Bottle Rocket Hearts, 2007 (Cormorant Books)
  • Holding Still For as Long as Possible, 2009 (House of Anansi)
  • The Middle Ground, 2010 (Orca Book Publishers)
  • The Best Kind of People, 2016 (House of Anansi)
  • The Spectacular, 2021 (HarperCollins Canada) ISBN 9781529383089
  • The Fake, 2023, (HarperCollins Canada) ISBN 9781443455282 (paperback), ISBN 9781443455275 (hardcover)

Poetry

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  • The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life, 2001 (McG)
  • The Emily Valentine Poems, 2006 (Snare)
  • Precordial Thump, 2008 (Exile Editions)

References

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  1. ^ Gardner, Suzanne (22 July 2014). "Zoe Whittall". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Zoe Whittall at The Canadian Encyclopedia
  3. ^ Zoe Whittall at IMDb
  4. ^ The verdict is in: The Top 40 revealed and your chance to choose the Canada Reads Top 10. Canada Reads, October 28, 2010.
  5. ^ "Zoe Whittall wins Dayne Ogilvie Grant". Quill & Quire, June 17, 2008.
  6. ^ "Farzana Doctor to receive Dayne Ogilvie Grant" Archived August 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Quill & Quire, June 1, 2011.
  7. ^ 2011 winners, Stonewall Book Award
  8. ^ Reese, Jenn (15 March 2012). "23rd Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists and Winners". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  9. ^ "The Middle Ground". orcabook.com. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  10. ^ Mitzner, Jessica (November 2011). "Zoe whittall". World Literature Today. 85 (6): 5. doi:10.1353/wlt.2011.0025. S2CID 245662429 – via Canadian Newsstream.
  11. ^ "Zoe Whittall: Unequal To Me". Lemon Hound: Arts, Letters, Poetry, Prose, An Ever-Evolving Digital Site Since 2005. Lemon Hound. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  12. ^ FIORENTINO, Jon Paul (5 January 2013). "Sexism and Silence in the Literary Community". Huffpost Canada online archive. Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  13. ^ L'ABBÉ, Sonnet (1 December 2014). "Best Isn't a Beauty Contest: How Canadian Poets Demand More of Verse". Cordite poetry review. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  14. ^ Walrus, The (15 December 2016). "The Best Books of 2016". The Walrus. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  15. ^ "The must-read Toronto books of 2016". Toronto Life. 30 December 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  16. ^ "Best books of the year". The Globe and Mail. 3 December 2016.
  17. ^ "The National Post Bestseller". The National Post. 8 October 2016.
  18. ^ "K.M. Hunter Artist Awards". K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  19. ^ "Zoe Whittall". IMDb. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  20. ^ Victoria Ahearn, "Motel Pictures filming queer indie music film We Forgot to Break Up". Playback, November 14, 2022.
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