Paul Quarrington

Paul Quarrington (September 13, 1953 – January 21, 2010) was a legendary, multi-talented Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, musician, and filmmaker whose rich, darkly humorous, and deeply compassionate storytelling earned him national icon status across multiple creative industries. Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, he attended the University of Toronto before dedicating his lifelong creative energy to an eclectic, extraordinarily prolific artistic career. Quarrington vaulted into permanent national literary prominence with his 1987 ice-hockey classic, King Leary, which won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and went on to win the 2008 national CBC Canada Reads competition. He cemented his reputation as one of Canada's most brilliant contemporary narrative architects by capturing the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction for his 1989 musical-odyssey masterpiece, Whale Music—a critically adored novel loosely inspired by Brian Wilson that Quarrington subsequently co-adapted into a Genie Award-nominated feature film. His expansive, genre-defying bibliography spanned ten celebrated novels including Civilization and The Ravine, several non-fiction titles like Fishing with My Ghost, and a wealth of iconic screenplays for classic Canadian television series like Due South and The Red Green Show. A highly accomplished vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter who seamlessly blended prose with performance, he also fronted the popular roots-rock outfit Porkbelly Futures, toured extensively with the literary supergroup the Northern Lights, and completed his final artistic testament with the posthumous release of his acclaimed cancer-chronicle memoir, Cigar Box Banjo.