David Macfarlane

David Macfarlane is an acclaimed Canadian journalist, playwright, and bestselling author whose fiction and memoirs masterfully capture the deep undercurrents of family relationships and national identity. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he established himself as a prominent media voice through an extensive career as a columnist for The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, alongside winning numerous National Magazine and National Newspaper Awards. He first achieved major literary recognition with The Danger Tree (1991), a highly praised family memoir tracking the profound impacts of World War I on Newfoundland, which won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Non-Fiction. Macfarlane transitioned brilliantly to fiction with his 1999 debut novel, Summer Gone, a national bestseller set in Ontario's northern cottage country. Seamlessly drifting between different timelines, the novel explores three generations of family history through the lens of an estranged father and son on an ill-fated canoe trip, a narrative mastery that earned him the prestigious Books in Canada First Novel Award and a shortlisting for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Toronto with his wife, designer Janice Lindsay, where he continues to write and adapt his historical works for the stage.