Canadian poet, novelist and TV writer who has published five novels and three poetry collections to date. 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.
Her first novel, Bottle Rocket Hearts (2007), was named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and one of the top ten essential Canadian novels of the decade by CBC’s Canada Reads.
Holding Still for as Long as Possible (2009), Whittall’s second novel, has been optioned for film, and was shortlisted for the 2010 ReLit Award. It was an honour book for the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award in 2011, as well as winning a Lambda Literary Award.
Her poetry books include The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life (2001), The Emily Valentine Poems (2006) and Precordial Thump (2008). She edited the short fiction anthology Geeks, Misfits & Outlaws (McGilligan Books) in 2003.
Her fourth novel The Best Kind of People (2016) was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. 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.
In 2018, Whittall won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Series for Baroness von Sketch Show.
Link to Wikipedia biography