Will Ferguson is a travel writer and novelist from western Canada, whose memoirs include Hitching Rides with Buddha, about an end-to-end journey across Japan by thumb, and Road Trip Rwanda, a journey into the new heart of Africa. A three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour, his Canadiana includes How to be a Canadian (written with his brother Ian), Why I Hate Canadians, and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw. He was named head writer for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Closing ceremonies and, in his youth, worked as a professional space cadet at Toronto’s CN Tower.

Will’s fiction includes the satirical novel Happiness, about a self-help book that actually works, thus destroying the world as we know it, and, more recently, The Shoe on the Roof, a darkly comedic story about a psychological experiment gone wrong. His novel 419, a literary thriller that spans continents, won the Giller Prize, Canada’s highest literary honor. He has also been nominated for a Commonwealth Award and the IMPAC Dublin Award for his jazz-age tale of con men and call girls, titled Spanish Fly. Born and raised in the former fur-trading post of Fort Vermilion, he now lives in Calgary with his wife Terumi and their two sons, Yuki Alister and Genki Alexander.

Workshops: Travel writing & the elements of fiction and Finding the star of your story