Will Ferguson is a Canadian writer and novelist who is best known for his humorous observations on Canadian history and culture. His success as a writer can be attributed to an inate ability to view Canada much the same way an outsider would. Ferguson was born 4th of 7 children in the former trading post of Fort Vermilion, Alberta approximately 800 km north of Edmonton. His unmarried parents split up when he was 6 during a brief interlude in Regina. At the age of 16 he quit school and moved to Saskatoon, Dauphin, and Red Deer. He then joined the Canadian government funded programs Katimavik and Canada World Youth. He studied film production and screenwriting at York University in Toronto graduating with a B.F.A. in 1990.
He married his wife Terumi in Kumamoto, Japan in 1995. After coming back from Japan he experienced a severe reverse culture shock which became the basis for his first book "Why I Hate Canadians." Ferguson lived in Japan for five years teaching English as a Second Language. He details his experiences hitchhiking across Japan in "Hitching Rides with Buddha.".
Ferguson has won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour twice, for Generica (renamed "Happiness TM" in 2002 and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw in 2005.
He currently resides in Calgary, Alberta with his wife and two sons. His older brother, Ian Ferguson, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for "Village of the Small Houses."
Books by Will Ferguson
- Why I Hate Canadians (1997)
- I Was a Teenage Katima-Victim! (1998)
- Hokkaido Highway Blues (1998)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan (1998)
- Bastards & Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders Past and Present (1999)
- The Girlfriend's Guide to Hockey (1999)
- Canadian History for Dummies (2000, revised 2005)
- Generica (2001), winner of the Stephen Leacock Award, later republished as Happiness™
- How to Be a Canadian (Even if You Already Are One) (2003), cowritten with Ian Ferguson
- Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw (2004)
- Hitching Rides with Buddha (2005)
- The Peguin Anthology of Canadian Humour (editor) (2006)
External links
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