Cary Fagan (born 1957) is a Canadian writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. His novel, ''The Student,'' was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award and the Governor General's Literary Award. Previously a short-story collection, ''My Life Among the Apes,'' was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and his widely praised adult novel, ''A Bird's Eye'', was shortlisted for the 2013

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize The Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, formerly known as the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, is a Canadian literary award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada after an annual juried competition of works submitted by publishers. A ...

. His novel ''Valentine's Fall'' was nominated for the 2010

Toronto Book Award The Toronto Book Awards are Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city ...

. Since publishing his first original children's book in 2001, he has published 25 children's titles.

Personal life

Fagan was born in 1957 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario. He grew up in the Toronto suburbs and attended the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, graduating with a degree in English and winning eight student awards. He has lived for short periods in London and New York City, and now lives in Toronto. He is married to Rebecca Comay, a member of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. He has two daughters, a step-son, and a step-daughter. Along with Bernard Kelly and Rebecca Comay, he co-publishes and edits a

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

, called espresso. Fagan has received a Toronto Book Award, two Jewish Book Awards, and a Mr Christie silver medal."Cary Fagan"
Cormorant Books. Archived 2013-08-31. Retrieved 2015-07-24.

Prizes and honours

* 1994 Jewish Book Award for Fiction (''The Animals' Waltz'') * 2004 World Storytelling Award (U.S.) (''The Market Wedding'') * 2009 Quill & Quire Book of the Year (''Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas'') * 2012 IODE Jean Throop Book Award (''Mr. Zinger's Hat'' * 2013 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (''Mr. Zinger's Hat'') * 2014 Vicki Metcalf Award for Children's Literature (body of work) * 2019 Joan Betty Stuchner--Oy Vey!--Funniest Children's Book Award (''Mort Ziff is not Dead'') ;Runners-up, etc. *1990 Finalist,

Toronto Book Awards The Toronto Book Awards are Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city ...

(''City Hall and Mrs. God'') *2000 Sydney Taylor Honor Book (U.S.) (''The Market Wedding'') *2004 Silver Birch Award Honour Book (''The Fortress of Kaspar Snit'') *2008 Finalist, TD Canadian Children's Literature Award (''Thing-Thing'') *2008 Silver Birch Express Award Honour Book (''Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit'') *2008 Finalist, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (''Thing-Thing'') *2010 Finalist, Toronto Book Awards (''Valentine's Fall'') *2012 Longlist,

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

(''My Life Among the Apes'') *2013 Finalist, Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize ("A Bird's Eye") *2015 Finalist, John Spray Mystery Award (''The Show to End all Shows'') *2019 Finalist, Toronto Book Award (''The Student'')

Published books

Novels for adults

*''The Animals' Waltz: a novel'' (

Lester & Orpen Dennys Lester & Orpen Dennys was a Canadian book publishing company based in Toronto, originally as Lester & Orpen. It operated as a publisher from 1973 to 1991. Writers who published with the company included Graham Greene, P.D. James, June Callwood, ...

, 1994) *''Sleeping Weather'' (Porcupine's Quill, 1997) *''Felix Roth'' (Stoddart Books, 1999) *''The Mermaid of Paris'' (

Key Porter Books Key Porter Books was a book publishing company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1979 by Anna Porter, later well known as a writer, the company specialized in Canadian non-fiction, although it published some fiction too. It ceased ope ...

, 2003) *''Valentine's Fall'' (

Cormorant Books Cormorant Books Inc is a Canadian book publishing company."Two houses under ...

, 2010) *''A Bird's Eye'' (

House of Anansi House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anansi ...

, 2013) * ''The Student'' (Freehand Books, 2019)

Children's fiction

* ''Gogol's Coat'' (

Tundra Books In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless moun ...

, 1999), illustrated by Regolo Ricci, adapted from "

The Overcoat "The Overcoat" (russian: Шине́ль, translit. Shinyél’; sometimes translated as "The Cloak") is a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story has had a great influence on Russian literature. Eugène-Mel ...

" by

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

* ''The Market Wedding'' (Tundra, 2000), illus. Regolo Ricci, from

Abraham Cahan Abraham "Abe" Cahan (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם קאַהאַן; July 7, 1860 – August 31, 1951) was a Lithuanian-born Jewish American socialist newspaper editor, novelist, and politician. Cahan was one of the founders of ''The Forward'' (), a ...

* ''Daughter of the Great Zandini'' (Tundra, 2001), illus. Cybèle Young * ''Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina's Life'' (Tundra, 2002), by Fagan and

Chan Hon Goh Chan Hon Goh, C.M. D.Litt (simplified Chinese: 吴振红; traditional Chinese: 吳振紅; born in 1969 in Beijing, China), is a Chinese-born Canadian ballerina. Goh was most notably a principal dancer with The National Ballet of Canada before g ...

, autobiographical * ''The Fortress of Kaspar Snit'' (Tundra, 2004), novel * ''Ten Old Men and a Mouse'' (Tundra, 2007), illus.

Gary Clement Gary Clement (born July 1959) is a Canadian artist, illustrator and writer living in Toronto, Ontario. Clement is the daily political cartoonist for Canada's ''National Post'' in Toronto since the newspaper's launch in 1998. His illustration work ...

* ''My New Shirt'' (Tundra, 2007), illus.

Dušan Petričić Dušan Petričić ( sr-cyr, Душан Петричић; born 10 May 1946) is a Serbian illustrator and caricaturist. He has illustrated numerous children's books and his caricatures have appeared in various newspapers and magazines from ''Polit ...

* ''Directed by Kaspar Snit'' (Tundra, 2007), sequel novel * ''Mr. Karp's Last Glass'' (Tundra, 2007), illus. Selçuk Demirel * ''Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit'' (Tundra, 2008), sequel novel * ''Thing-Thing'' (Tundra, 2008), illus.

Nicolas Debon Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

* ''Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas'' (Tundra, 2009), illus. Dušan Petričić * ''Book of Big Brothers'' (

Groundwood Books House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anans ...

, 2010), illus.

Luc Melanson Luc or LUC may refer to: Places * Luc, Hautes-Pyrénées, France, a commune * Luc, Lozère, France, a commune * Le Luc, France, a commune * Luč, Baranja, Croatia, a settlement People and fictional characters * Luc (given name) * Luc (surn ...

* ''The Big Swim'' (Groundwood, 2010), novel * ''Banjo of Destiny'' (Groundwood, 2011), illus. Selçuk Demirel * ''Ella May and the Wishing Stone'' (Tundra, 2011), illus.

Geneviève Côté Geneviève Côté (born 1964) is a Canadian illustrator living in Montreal, mainly known for her work on children's books. She was born in Montreal, Quebec, and received a bachelor's degree in graphic design from Concordia University in 1987. C� ...

* ''Mr. Zinger's Hat'' (Tundra, 2012), illus. Dušan Petričić * ''The Boy in the Box'' (Penguin Canada, 2012), novel; Master Melville's Medicine Show, book 1 * ''Danny, Who Fell in a Hole'' (Groundwood, 2013), illus. Milan Pavlovic * ''Oy, Feh, So'' (Groundwood, 2013), illus. Gary Clement * ''I Wish I Could Draw'' (Groundwood, 2014), "words and (bad) pictures by Cary Fagan", * ''Little Blue Chair'' (Tundra, 2017), illus. Madelie Kloepper * ''A Cage Went in Search of a Bird'' (Groundwood, 2017), illus. Banafsheh Erfanian * ''Wolfie & Fly'' (Tundra, 2017), illus. Zoe Si * ''Mort Ziff is Not Dead'' (Penguin Canada) * ''What Are You Doing, Benny?'' (Tundra, 2019), illus. Kady MacDonald Denton * ''The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster'' (Tundra, 2019) * ''King Mouse'' (Tundra, 2019), illus.

Dena Seiferling Dena (in Luri and fa, ) is the name for a sub-range within the Zagros Mountains, Iran. Mount Dena, with length and average width, is situated on the boundary of the Isfahan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Prov ...

* ''Mr. Tempkin Climbs a Tree'' (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2019), illus.

Carles Arbat Carles () is a common Catalan given name of Germanic origin, which also appears as a surname. The English language equivalent is Charles. The name Carles can refer to: People *Carles (name) Places *Carles, Iloilo, a 2nd class municipality in t ...

* ''Son of Happy'' (Groundwood, 2020), illus. Milan Pavlović * ''Bear Wants to Sing'' (Tundra, 2021), illus.

* ''Water, Water'' (Tundra, 2022)

Short stories

* ''History Lessons'' (Hounslow, 1990) * ''The Little Black Dress: tales from France'' ( The Mercury Press, 1993) * ''The Doctor's House and other Fiction'' (Stoddart, 2000) * ''My Life Among the Apes'' (Cormorant, 2012) * ''The Old World and Other Stories'' (Anansi, 2017) * ''Great Adventures for the Faint of Heart'' (Freehand Books, 2021)

Non-fiction

* ''City Hall and Mrs. God: A Passionate Journey Through a Changing Toronto'' (The Mercury Press, 1990)

As editor

* ''Streets of Attitude: Toronto stories'' (Toronto: Yonge & Bloor, 1990), * ''A Walk by the Seine: Canadian poets on Paris'' (Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1995),

References

External links

*
paperplates books

espresso
* *
My Father's Picasso
Published on Geist Magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagan, Cary 1957 births Canadian children's writers Canadian male novelists Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian male short story writers Living people 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers