Solo Feature: Wild Failure
Event Details
In Wild Failure, characters encounter feelings of shame, desire, attachment, and disconnection as they find themselves navigating their way through bad decisions, unusual situations, and
Event Details
In Wild Failure, characters encounter feelings of shame, desire, attachment, and disconnection as they find themselves navigating their way through bad decisions, unusual situations, and fraught relationships.
In “Oh, El,” a dominant woman can’t stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, “Wild Failure,” is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In “Half-Pipe,” a teen girl’s heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in “Murder at the Elm Street Collective House.” In “The Sex Castle Lunch Buffet,” a woman reflects on her brief stint at a nineties strip club after she learns of the death of a former client.Wild Failure is replete with Whittall’s perceptive humor and acute insights into human nature. It’s also a dynamic and vibrant collection of poetic fiction that contend with the meaning of desire in a world that devalues femininity and queerness.
Speakers for this event
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Katie Underwood
Katie Underwood
Moderator
Katie Underwood is an award-winning journalist and the current managing editor at Maclean’s magazine. Previously, she held editorial positions at Chatelaine and The Grid, and her byline has appeared in such fine publications as The Walrus, Toronto Life, the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. She just got into audiobooks.
Moderator
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Zoe Whittall
Zoe Whittall
Zoe Whittall’s latest book is the short story collection Wild Failure (Harpercollins, 24). Her fifth bestselling novel The Fake was longlisted for the 2023 Toronto Book Award. The New York Times called her fourth novel The Spectacular “a highly readable testament to the strength of the maternal bond” and The Toronto Star called it “a singularly impressive piece of fiction.” Her third novel The Best Kind of People was published in 2017 by Penguin Random House U.S., was shortlisted for The Scotiabank Giller Prize, named Indigo’s #1 Book of 2016. She won a Lamda literary award for her second novel Holding Still for as Long as Possible, and the Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie prize for her debut, Bottle Rocket Hearts. She is also a Canadian Screen Award winning TV writer. Her fourth book of poetry, No Credit River, will be out in October 2024. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Books
Wild Failure
AuthorZoe Whittall
Partners
HarperCollins Canada
Accessibility Sponsor
Maclean's Magazine
Program Presenting Sponsor
