The ability to weave comedy into dark, serious topics comes naturally to Georgia Toews, who infuses humour, astute reflections, and lived experience into her writing. Her highly acclaimed debut novel, Hey, Good Luck Out There, follows a young woman as she goes through rehab and then tracks her “out there” as she struggles to remain sober after she’s been released. Rather than falling into tragedy or triumph tropes, Toews doesn’t shy away from the messiness of recovery, offering an unflinching look at what it feels like to lose control of your life and slowly, painfully try to reclaim it. The voice is sharp, self aware and often bitingly funny, even in its bleakest moments, capturing a raw emotional honesty that feels unmistakably her own. In her newest novel, Nobody Asked For This, Virginia, only 23 years old, is grinding through Toronto’s comedy club circuit, hoping to advance her career and secure a green card to move to Los Angeles. She’s doing her best to navigate a series of life altering events: her relationship with her best friend and roommate is collapsing; her stepfather has decided to sell the family home, forcing her to confront long buried feelings of grief and loss; and then there’s the date with a fellow comic that ends in sexual assault. Layered onto this, Virginia also has to contend with the misogyny of the club circuit and the rivalries between comics that lead to dirty tricks and betrayals. There’s a lot happening and Toews handles it all masterfully, writing with clear eyed perception, not sugar coating any of the trauma but meeting it head on, blending humour and pain in a way that feels both intimate and unsentimental. “The world is so funny and so terrible,” Toews has said. “I really enjoy writing about people living in the aftermath of it all.”
She will be in conversation with Kara Stanley, author of Fallen and The Pain Project.
Georgia Toews is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel Hey, Good Luck Out There. She is also a writer for film and television. Born and raised in Winnipeg, she now lives in Toronto.
Kara Stanley is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, a lyricist, and a movement teacher. Her publications include the novel Ghost Warning (2017) and Fallen (2015), a non-fiction account of her husband’s life-altering accident that resulted in severe brain and spinal cord injury and the role music plays in his ongoing recovery. Her latest release, The Pain Project, is a wide-ranging exploration of the definitions, treatments, science, myths, and meanings of the mysterious and multi-faceted force that is pain. Author Susan Orlean describes the book as “…a beautiful, humane, thoughtful inquiry…This is a tough subject but a joyful book; it takes on a daunting topic with heart and humor and determination. It’s wonderful.”
