Brother Dumb | Bottle Rocket Hearts

Sky Gilbert and Zoe Whittall in conversation with Maggie MacDonald. See short films based on Brother Dumb and Bottle Rocket Hearts. Get your books signed! Hosted by Elvira Kurt.

Novelist, poet, filmmaker, director, actor, and drag queen extraordinaire... Sky Gilbert is one of Canada's most controversial artistic forces. He was the co-founder and Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for 18 years. In 1997 Sky Gilbert left Buddies to have more time for creative pursuits.

Sky has published 5 novels -- his most recent novel Brother Dumb (ECW Press) was described by Canada's Quill and Quire as "a well paced and provocative book that sets itself an enormous creative challenge." His fourth novel An English Gentleman received Canada' ReLit Award in 2005, and his first novel Guilty was described thusly by The Village Voice thusly: "Guilty is pleasure." Sky is much in demand reading his own work at "performance poetry" sessions, and his collection of poems, DIGRESSIONS OF A NAKED PARTY GIRL, was published by ECW Press in October 1998 and his second collection of poems Temptations for a Juvenile Delinquent was published in 2003.

Zoe Whittall is the author of The Emily Valentine Poems (2006) and The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life (2001). In 2003, she edited a collection of short fiction called Geeks, Misfits & Outlaws. Her first novel, Bottle Rocket Hearts is forthcoming with Cormorant Books in spring 2007. Her fiction and poetry appear in many anthologies including Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets edited by Lorna Crozier & Patrick Lane, Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity edited by Chloe Brushwood-Rose & Anna Camilleri, Bent: On Writing edited by Elizabeth Ruth, Girls Who Bite Back edited by Emily Pohl-Weary and Ribsauce edited by Taien Ng-Chan and several others. She currently writes cultural criticism for a variety of Canadian newspapers and magazines. Originally from South Durham, Quebec, she has lived in Toronto for the last ten years.