National Poetry Month Spotlight: Zoe Whittall
We’re back with the fourth feature in our National Poetry Month Poet Spotlight series. Next up is Zoe Whittall!
Zoe is a prolific and beloved member of the literary community, and last year we had the pleasure of publishing her brilliant poetic memoir No Credit River.
Without further ado, please enjoy “How to Fail as a Comedy Writer and a Wife” from No Credit River, which is available for purchase on our online store! Please follow along for more National Poetry Month Poet Spotlights all month long.
How to Fail as a Comedy Writer and a Wife
Moving to Los Angeles and failing is the most Canadian thing I’ve ever done. I wasn’t being funny, which was my job, nor was I tolerating loneliness or successful at becoming friends with competitive comedy writers. I loved the flowers but not the rats that hangout in the blossoming trees. The posters on the corner of Hyperion and Sunset are trying to convince me to try a tapeworm for weight loss. TV writing has its own jargon. A hat on a hat. Let’s blue-sky this. I used the word competitive above but I meant cruel. All the fresh juice is filled with charcoal. I spend my first weekend going nowhere except Trader Joe’s. I accidentally wander into Scandal filming B-roll on my way to eat secret lunch on the lot. My ego isn’t big enough to be here, I tell my best friends at home who work in offices, but my body is too big. I’d been working alone in a room writing a novel for so many months that I forgot how mean a boss could be. I rented an actor’s garage. Feral cats lived on the roof. I tried to feed them every morning but we never bonded. I’m just trying to be myself in a city of people trying to be other people, I tell the bravest feral, as he puts one paw into a yogourt container filled with 5 a.m. tap water.
