Cary Fagan


Cary Fagan 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. His novel Valentine's Fall was nominated for the 2010 Toronto Book Award. 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, Ontario. He grew up in the Toronto suburbs and attended the University of Toronto, 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, called espresso.
Fagan has received a Toronto Book Award, two Jewish Book Awards, and a Mr Christie silver medal.

Prizes and honours

;Runners-up, etc.

Novels for adults

  • The Animals' Waltz: A Novel
  • Sleeping Weather
  • Felix Roth
  • The Mermaid of Paris
  • Valentine's Fall
  • A Bird's Eye
  • The Student
  • ''The Animals''

    Children's fiction

  • Gogol's Coat, illustrated by Regolo Ricci, adapted from "The Overcoat" by Gogol
  • The Market Wedding, illus. Regolo Ricci, from Abraham Cahan
  • Daughter of the Great Zandini, illus. Cybèle Young
  • Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina's Life, by Fagan and Chan Hon Goh, autobiographical
  • The Fortress of Kaspar Snit, novel
  • Ten Old Men and a Mouse, illus. Gary Clement
  • My New Shirt, illus. Dušan Petričić
  • Directed by Kaspar Snit, sequel novel
  • Mr. Karp's Last Glass, illus. Selçuk Demirel
  • Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit, sequel novel
  • Thing-Thing, illus. Nicolas Debon
  • Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas, illus. Dušan Petričić
  • Book of Big Brothers, illus. Luc Melanson
  • The Big Swim, novel
  • Banjo of Destiny, illus. Selçuk Demirel
  • Ella May and the Wishing Stone, illus. Geneviève Côté
  • Mr. Zinger's Hat, illus. Dušan Petričić
  • The Boy in the Box, novel; Master Melville's Medicine Show, book 1
  • Danny, Who Fell in a Hole, illus. Milan Pavlovic
  • Oy, Feh, So, illus. Gary Clement
  • I Wish I Could Draw, "words and pictures by Cary Fagan",
  • Little Blue Chair, illus. Madelie Kloepper
  • A Cage Went in Search of a Bird, illus. Banafsheh Erfanian
  • Wolfie & Fly, illus. Zoe Si
  • Mort Ziff is Not Dead
  • What Are You Doing, Benny?, illus. Kady MacDonald Denton
  • The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster
  • King Mouse, illus. Dena Seiferling
  • Mr. Tempkin Climbs a Tree, illus. Carles Arbat
  • Son of Happy, illus. Milan Pavlović
  • Bear Wants to Sing, illus. Dena Seiferling
  • Water, Water
  • Boney
  • ''Hans Christian Andersen Lives Next Door''

    Short stories

  • History Lessons
  • The Little Black Dress: tales from France
  • The Doctor's House and other Fiction
  • My Life Among the Apes
  • The Old World and Other Stories
  • ''Great Adventures for the Faint of Heart''

    Non-fiction

  • ''City Hall and Mrs. God: A Passionate Journey Through a Changing Toronto''

    As editor

  • Streets of Attitude: Toronto stories,
  • A Walk by the Seine: Canadian poets on Paris,