Jessica Westhead, "Conversation Over the Holidays"

It’s December 16. Jessica Westhead, author of Avalanche, knows a good crab dip when she sees it.

How would you describe your story?

JESSICA WESTHEAD: In my story, two middle-aged, middle-class white Canadian couples with kids are visiting each other in one of their homes, on an evening sometime between Christmas and the end of the winter break from school, when the family members are feeling extra irritable with each other and seeking refuge and validation in their like-minded friends’ company. The story begins after one of the adults tells a racist joke that everyone then tries to either ignore or defend or minimize.

When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?

JW: I wrote this story in January 2024. It was the first new story I wrote since my most recent short story collection, Avalanche, was published in fall 2023 by the wondrous folks at Invisible Publishing. In Avalanche, I critiqued—with humour and compassion—the obliviousness of middle-class white privilege, which started by looking inward. “Conversation Over the Holidays” grew out of an urge to poke holes in the excuse of unawareness, with my characters reacting to the many ways their coping mechanisms of escapism and compartmentalization are no longer working in a world that suddenly feels much less comfortable and controllable for them than it used to. They’re feeling baffled and bewildered and off-kilter, and maybe even nostalgic for a “simpler” time when they could more easily pretend to believe that the world is a totally fair and just place for everyone.

What kind of research went into this story?

JW: I didn’t do any research. But I’m in the same demographic as my characters, and against the backdrop of this precarious time we’re living in, I wanted to explore the precarious in-between time for parents in midlife, with the health of our own aging parents declining while the needs of our growing children are becoming more complex. Meanwhile there is this insistent sense that we are all careening toward something terrible that we are completely unprepared for, with our own health, and the well-being of our planet, feeling more and more anxiously uncertain.

What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?

JW: A short story can accomplish so much with so little. It magnifies and elevates seemingly unremarkable, everyday moments and reveals how those moments are actually full of meaning and significance. In doing that, short stories point to how all of our lives, as individuals who are undeniably connected to each other, are full of meaning and significance. And it’s a very special thing that the Short Story Advent Calendar wholeheartedly and enthusiastically celebrates the specialness of the short story form.

Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?

JW: My website is: www.jessicawesthead.com and I’m on Instagram at @westheadjessica.

What’s the best gift you've ever been given?

JW: Every new handmade card from my daughter, for any occasion, is always my favourite.

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