Will Ferguson wins 2012 Giller Prize for "419"

Mark Medley | National Post | Oct 30, 2012 

Will Ferguson, one of Canada’s pre-eminent humorists, travel writers, and a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, is the winner of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Taking the stage moments after the announcement was made, and wearing a kilt displaying his family colours, Ferguson took a silver flask from “the old sporran” and raised it to the room.

“I’d like to raise a toast to the written word,” he said, as the audience responded in kind.

Ferguson’s tightly-plotted literary thriller 419, which explores the Byzantine world of email scams, taking the reader from the streets of Calgary to the back-alleys of Lagos, is perhaps the most populist book to be awarded Canada’s most prestigious literary prize.

He receives $50,000 for winning the Giller, which was awarded at a gala ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto Tuesday night.

If anyone wants to write a review of 419, I’d love to post it. Email your review to me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Dundas, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Newmarket, Barrie, Gravenhurst, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.