will ferguson

Will Ferguson is an award-winning travel writer and novelist whose books span the globe, from Buenos Aires to Belfast, from central Africa to southern Japan, from the Australian Outback to Okinawa.

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His most recent trip was to the Faroe Islands and Grimsey, off the northern coast of Iceland, where he crossed the Arctic Circle on foot--and was back at his guesthouse in time for tea.

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He won the 2021 Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction, and the 2012 Giller Prize for Fiction. A three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humor, he has been nominated for both the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

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In his early twenties, Will Ferguson lived and worked in Ecuador, South America, as part of CWY (similar to the American Peace Corps). 

 

He studied film production and screenwriting at York University, graduating with a B.F.A. (Special Honors) in 1990.

 

After university, he joined the JET (Japan Exchange Teachers) Program and spent five years in Asia, travelling through China, Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia. He married his wife Terumi in Kumamoto, Japan. They now live in Western Canada, with their two sons.

 

His travel memoirs include: 

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• hitchhiking the length of Japan in Hitching Rides with Buddha 

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• a 500-mile hike across Northern Ireland in Beyond Belfast  

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• travels in Canada in Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw  

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• a journey through central Africa in Road Trip Rwanda, which was nominated for the Charles Taylor Prize

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In 2010, he was the head writer for the Vancouver Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies, penning material for the likes of William Shatner and Michael J. Fox.

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Ferguson has written for the New York Times, Esquire UK, Flare, Zoomer, the Globe & Mail, National Post and Canadian Geographic. 

 

He sits on the board of The Chawkers Foundation, and in 2016 received an honorary degree in English from Mount Royal University.