No Credit River by Zoe Whittall

“It is a confusing thing to be born between generations where the one above thinks nothing is trauma and the one below thinks everything is trauma.”

From acclaimed novelist and television writer Zoe Whittall comes a memoir in prose poetry that reconfirms her celebrated honesty, emotional acuity, and wit. Riving and probing a period of six years marked by abandoned love, the pain of a lost pregnancy, and pandemic isolation, No Credit River is a reckoning with the creative instinct itself.

Open and exacting, this is a unique examination of anxiety in complex times, and a contribution to contemporary autofiction as formally inventive as it is full of heart.

Praise for No Credit River

“No Credit River is a masterful expression of queer heartache. Zoe Whittall writes with self-possessed and unmitigated emotion. She writes both with urgency and the sagacity that comes with a dark-night-of-the-soul level of reflection. The lyrical prose firmly holds the weight of the book’s themes. I love the gutsy musicality of the writing. I am particularly moved by Whittall’s use of motif and refrain to remind us of the cyclical nature of love and grief and healing.” —Amber Dawn, author of My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems

“In No Credit River, Zoe Whittall pulls us into the eddies of attachment and alienation, eros and elegy, and an ever-present slipstream of love we can never fully inhabit or abandon. The softly abraded memories are mapped by an ars poetica that signals both an experimentation with form and a grief-tempered, arresting honesty. These poems are an exploration of connection and loss, and the bonds that fray and fortify the self. No Credit River is a testament to our queer and artistic communities—profoundly thoughtful, coursing with intelligence.” —Ali Blythe, author of Stedfast

“Whittall’s return to poetry has been well worth the wait. Call this a collection of prose poems, call it autofiction, call it memoir riddled with metaphor, call it names, call it whatever you want really, as long as you call it. These poems embrace contradiction like lovers who have broken up but still won’t let go; they fill the wasteland between the phrases ‘nothing is traumatic’ and ‘everything is traumatic.’ No Credit River is one of the most electrifying collections I have read in years.” —Hannah Green, author of Xanax Cowboy

Press Coverage

2024 Fall Poetry Preview —Quill & Quire

54 works of Canadian nonfiction to check out this fall —CBC Books

Fall 2024 Books Preview: 25 books worthy of a place at the top of your to-read pile —Toronto Star

What We’re Reading: Staff Writers’ Picks, Fall 2024 —Hamilton Review of Books

16 Books for Women’s History Month 2024 —All Lit Up

“In intimate vignettes that weave back and forth through time, the memoir No Credit River covers the aftermath of a life-altering breakup, addressing themes of queer relationality and sexuality, aging, pregnancy, and loss with intelligence, wit, and devastating candor.” —Bella Moses, Foreword Reviews

“No Credit River deserves all the credit for not just encapsulating the complexities of queer relationships, bisexuality, middle age, or for writing a successful ‘poetry-prose memoir’ hybrid, but for making heartbreak real and anxieties that often get hushed apparent: things that make human beings human, and sad, and vulnerable in tender, moving poems that demand rereading.” —Chris Banks, The Woodlot

“Rich with fierce intelligence and a deep intimacy, Whittall’s sequence of diary-poems unfold and meander, and there’s an ability that I admire about her (or her narrator, alternately) ability to be present, whether discussing the wish to possibly have a baby, the devastation of a break-up, or seeing an elk outside her window at Banff Writing Studio, all while allowing the blend of daily life and writing life to shape and inform.” —rob mclennan’s blog

Two Poems: No Credit River by Zoe Whittall —All Lit Up

“No Credit River is a book about falling in and out of love; it is a book about becoming pregnant and miscarrying; it is a book about being alone and being with other people; and it is a book about writing, and writing about writing. Merging prose poetry and autofiction, Whittall offers a unique memoir focused on heartbreak, anxiety, and lingering desires.” —Sanna Wani, Quill & Quire, starred review

The All Lit Up Holiday Reading Edit: For those who like to read outside the box (multigenre books to treasure) —All Lit Up

“No Credit River paints a nuanced picture of queer family-building and how these relationships change with age. Whittall confronts the anxieties, heartbreaks, and surprises that emerge from loss with refreshing honesty and precision. Her candid wit turns these acutely observed poems into a memorable page-turner about extending care toward our messiest selves.” —Rebecca Peng, Nuvo Mag

The best Canadian nonfiction of 2024 —CBC Books

The Hamilton Review of Books’ Independently Published Bestsellers List: November 2024 —Hamilton Review of Books