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Zoe Whittall
Poet, performer and writer Zoe Whittall grew up on a sheep farm in South Durham, Quebec. After moving to Montreal at 19, she founded the successful performance series Girlspit, recently chronicled in the book Impure, Reinventing the Word: The theory, practice, and oral history of spoken word in Montreal (Conundrum Press).
Editor of the short fiction anthology Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws (McGilligan, 2003) - "a who's-who of edgy Can-Lit" by the Globe and Mail – Zoe Whittall's poetry was selected for Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. (Nightwood Editions, 2004). A columnist for Kiss Machine and a freelance arts reviewer for a variety of Canadian magazines, Zoe's writing has been anthologized in Ribsauce (Véhicule), Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity (Arsenal Pulp), Girls Who Bite Back (Sumach) and Bent (Women's Press). Her first book of poetry – The Best 10 Minutes of Your Life – was published in 2001 (McGilligan).
Zoe Whittall recently appeared at the 2004 Vancouver International Writers Festival and performs regularly with the word-based performance troupe Trash and Ready. She lives in Toronto.
"Zoe Whittall's poetry makes you want to grab your best girlfriend, roll some stolen cash up in your sock, steal a pint of booze and hop a skanky bus into an excellent adventure. It's the crazy glee and twanging loneliness that comes from having nothing left to lose, real raw goodness."
Michelle Tea