Zoe Whittall Writers in Residence Archives
Zoe Whittall is the author of The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life (2001), The Emily Valentine Poems (2006), and Precordial Thump (2008), and the editor of Geeks, Misfits, & Outlaws (2003). Her debut novel Bottle Rocket Hearts (2007) made the Globe and Mail Top 100 Books of the Year and CBC Canada Reads’ Top Ten Essential Novels of the Decade. Her second novel Holding Still for as Long as Possible (2009) won a Lambda Literary Award and was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. Her most recent book, The Best Kind of People, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her writing has appeared in the Walrus, the Believer, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Fashion, and more. She has also worked as a writer and story editor on the TV shows Degrassi and Schitt’s Creek. Born in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, she has an MFA from the University of Guelph and lives in Toronto.
You can write to Zoe throughout the month of March at writer@open-book.ca
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March 31, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #12: Jonathan Garfinkel
In 2012 I went to Banff for a self-directed residency in hopes I'd finally finish a significant re-draft of The Best Kind of People. I spent every day by myself in my room, taking breaks to walk in the ...
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March 31, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #11: Andrew Westoll
Andrew Westoll is an award-winning writer and former primatologist, author of the bestselling memoir The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary. His new novel is The Jungle South of the Mountain. Andrew is a professor ...
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March 31, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #10: Amy Jones
I was so happy to meet Amy Jones several years ago in Thunder Bay, and then again when our books were released in the same season, and we shared the stage at a few literary festivals. What is the one ...
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March 29, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told me About Being a Writer #8: Jen Sookfong Lee
Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side, where she now lives with her son. Her books include The Conjoined, a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, The Better Mother, a ...
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March 27, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #7: Matthew J. Trafford
Matthew J. Trafford is a short story writer and screenwriter, and the author of The Divinity Gene. He also has a story in a recent issue of The Puritan.What do you wish someone had told you before you ...
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March 27, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #6: George Murray
George Murray’s seven books of poetry include Diversion (ECW, 2015), Whiteout (2012), Glimpse: Selected Aphorisms (2010), The Rush to Here (Nightwood, 2007), The Hunter (McClelland & Stewart, ...
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March 24, 2017
Why "Crazy" People Make Great Writers
A few years back The Naked Heart Festival, an LGBT festival of words, invited me to speak on a panel about writing and mental health. My second novel, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, is partially ...
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March 24, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Becoming a Writer #5: Greg Kearney
Greg Kearney is a playwright, novelist , short story writer and humour writer. His latest book, The Desperates, was shortlisted for a LAMBDA, and is a really smart, hilarious and outrageous book. Greg ...
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March 20, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #4: Daniel Scott Tysdal
Daniel Scott Tysdal is a poet, filmmaker and professor of creative writing. His books are Fauxccassional Poems (Icehouse, 2015) The Mourner’s Book of Albums (Tightrope 2010) and Predicting the Next ...
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March 20, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me about Becoming a Writer #3: Russell Smith
Russell Smith is most recently the author of Confidence, but has written a total of ten books, and is a regular arts columnist for The Globe & Mail. Here's what he had to say for the Q&A series.What ...