Gary Barwin is a writer, musician, multimedia artist, and the author of thirty-seven books. bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and a Governor General’s Literary Award, and won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction. Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy was chosen for Hamilton Reads, won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature for Fiction. Hist latest novel is The Comedian’s Book of the Dead. Barwin lives in Hamilton.