Will Ferguson

William Stener Ferguson (born October 12, 1964) is a Canadian travel writer and novelist who won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel 419.

Ferguson was born fourth of six children in the former fur trading post of Fort Vermilion, Alberta, approximately 800 km north of Edmonton. His parents split up when he was six years old, during a brief interlude in Regina. At the age of 16, he quit school and moved to Saskatoon, Dauphin, and Red Deer.

Ferguson is also an outspoken critic of the monarchy of Canada, both publicly and in his books, and has previously been quoted in the media during debates on Canada's monarchy. He also profiled Canadian secessionist and independence movements (such as the "Republic of Madawaska") in his book Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw (2004).

Personal life
Ferguson completed his high school education at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School (L.T.C.H.S.) in Red Deer, and was awarded the Alexander Rutherford Scholarships in all available categories. He then joined the Canadian government funded programs Katimavik and Canada World Youth. The latter program sent him to Ecuador in South America, as described in his book Why I Hate Canadians. He studied film production and screenwriting at York University in Toronto, graduating with a B.F.A. (Special Honours) in 1990.

He currently resides in Calgary, Alberta. His son Genki Ferguson is the author of the novel Satellite Love. His older brother, Ian Ferguson, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for his memoir Village of the Small Houses in 2004. Another brother, Sean Ferguson, is currently the dean of music at McGill University.

Ferguson joined the JET Programme in the early 1990s, and lived in Kyushu, Japan, for five years teaching English. He married his wife, Terumi, in Kumamoto in 1995. While living in Asia, he travelled to China, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia. After moving back to Canada, he experienced a severe reverse culture shock, which became the basis for his first book, Why I Hate Canadians. He details his experiences hitchhiking across Japan in Hokkaido Highway Blues, later retitled Hitching Rides with Buddha.

Awards and honours
Ferguson has won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times: first for Generica (later renamed Happiness) in 2002, then for Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw in 2005 and for his travel memoir Beyond Belfast in 2010.

In 2005, he was awarded the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media (the Pierre Berton Award).

In fiction, Ferguson won the 2012 Giller Prize for 419. The novel went on to win the 2013 Libris Award from the Canadian Booksellers Association for Fiction Book of the Year.

He served on the jury of the 2015 Hilary Weston Prize for literary nonfiction.

He received an honorary degree in English from Mount Royal University in 2016.

In 2021, he won the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Novel for The Finder.

And in 2024, Ferguson was made a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence

Other activities
Ferguson is on the board of directors of the Chawkers Foundation, which provides support for literary, artistic, environmental and educational projects.

Fiction

 * Happiness™ (2001), winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, originally titled Generica
 * Spanish Fly (2007) published in the UK as Hustle
 * 419 (2012), winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize
 * The Shoe on the Roof (2017)
 * The Finder (2020), winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Novel

Miranda Abbott mysteries

 * I Only Read Murder (2023), with Ian Ferguson
 * Mystery in the Title (2024), with Ian Ferguson

Travel

 * The Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan (1998)
 * Hokkaido Highway Blues (1998), republished in 2005 as Hitching Rides with Buddha
 * Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada (2004), winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
 * Beyond Belfast: A 560-Mile Walk Across Northern Ireland on Sore Feet (2009), winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
 * Road Trip Rwanda: A Journey into the New Heart of Africa (2015)

Humour

 * Why I Hate Canadians (1997)
 * How to Be a Canadian (2001), with Ian Ferguson
 * Canadian Pie (2011)

Popular history

 * Bastards and Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders, Past and Present (1999)
 * Canadian History for Dummies (2000, revised 2005)

Personal memoirs

 * I was a Teenage Katima-victim! (1998)
 * Coal Dust Kisses: A Christmas Memoir (2010)

As editor

 * The Penguin Anthology of Canadian Humour (2006)