Zoe Whittall

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

Early life and education

Whittall was born in 1976 in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and spent her childhood on a farm on the outskirts of South Durham.

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

Holding Still for as Long as Possible, Whittall's second novel, was published in 2009 in Canada and 2010 in the United States. as well as winning a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction and becoming a finalist for their Lesbian Fiction award.

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.

Her poetry books include The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life, The Emily Valentine Poems and Precordial Thump.

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

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, The Globe & Mail, Toronto Life, and The National Post. 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.

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.

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.

In 2024, she also published the autofiction and prose poetry work No Credit River, which she labeled "an unreliable memoir". It focuses on heartbreak, love, anxiety, and writing. It was a finalist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry. Sanna Wani gave it a starred review in Quill & Quire, praising it as "spare and cinematic; the texture loose, memorable, and scattered with lines as poetic as they are biting."

Personal life She lives in Toronto.