Hamilton writer, musician and multimedia artist, Gary Barwin is the author of twenty-two books including the nationally bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates, winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, and a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award.  His poetry includes For It is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe: New and Selected Poems, ed. Alessandro Porco (Wolsak and Wynn, 2019.) A new novel, Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted will appear in Spring 2021.

He is a three-time recipient of Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year, has received the Hamilton Arts Award for Literature and has co-won the bpNichol Chapbook Award and the K.M. Hunter Artist Award. A PhD in music composition, Barwin has been writer-in-residence at several universities and libraries and has taught widely. His work has been performed, exhibited and published internationally. garybarwin.com.