In Wild Failure, characters encounter feelings of shame, desire, attachment and disconnection as they find themselves navigating their way through bad decisions, unusual situations and fraught relationships.

In "Oh, El," a dominant woman can't stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, "Wild Failure," is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In "Half-Pipe," a teen girl's heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in "Murder at the Elm Street Collective House." In "The Sex Castle Lunch Buffet," a woman reflects on her brief stint at a nineties strip club after she learns of the death of a former client.

Wild Failure is replete with Whittall's perceptive humour and acute insights into human nature. It's also a dynamic and vibrant collection of poetic fiction that contend with the meaning of desire in a world that devalues femininity and queerness. (HarperCollins)

Zoe Whittall is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. Her books include The Fake, Bottle Rocket Hearts, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, a Lambda Literary Award winner, and The Best Kind of People, which was a finalist for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize. She's also a writer for the hit CBC comedy series Baroness Von Sketch Show and was a story editor on the sitcom Schitt's Creek. The Best Kind of People is being adapted for film by Sarah Polley. Whittall lives in Toronto.