Jessica Westhead

Event Info: Great Books Marquee at 2:15 PM

Jessica Westhead is a Toronto writer and editor. Her fiction has appeared in major literary journals in Canada and the U.S., including Geist, The New Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, Matrix, and Indiana Review. Her short story “Unique and Life-Changing Items” was shortlisted for the 2009 CBC Literary Awards, and her first novel, Pulpy & Midge (2007, Coach House Books), was nominated for the ReLit Award. Her new short story collection, And Also Sharks, was published by Cormorant Books in spring 2011. One of these stories has been selected for the 2011 Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize anthology

Books

And Also Sharks

In this collection, society’s misfits and losers are portrayed sympathetically, and sometimes even heroically. A disgruntled follower of a self-esteem blog posts a rambling critical comment. On the hunt for the perfect coffee table, a pregnant woman and her husband stop to visit his terminally ill ex-wife. The office cat lady reluctantly joins her fellow employees’ crusade to cheer up their dying co-worker. A man grieving his wife’s miscarriages follows his deluded friend on a stealth photo-taking mission at the Auto Show. A shoplifter creates her own narrative with stolen anecdotes and a kidnapped baby. The forlornly funny stories in And Also Sharks celebrate the socially awkward, the insecure, the unfulfilled, and the obsessed. As desperately as these characters long to fit in, they also take pride in what sets them apart.

Cormorant Books - $21.00 - Short Stories