Trevor Cole has been referred to by several critics and also fans of his works as the best young novelist in Canada. He comes from a humble background and has even worked on a factory floor to the newspaper boardroom. Despite this, he has managed to earn a living through writing. He first worked as a radio copywriter to an award-winning journalist. He spent fifteen years in the Globe and Mail’s magazine division where he was the travel editor.
He left the Globe in 2001 and wrote a column for the Canadian business which created an irritated fan base of business leaders for him. His novel, “Practical Jean”, got him nominated for the 2011 Steven Leacock Medal for Humor. His novel employs humor and observations of contemporary life. This is a style he is known for and is displayed in his previous works such as “Six feet under” and “Dexter”.
Terry Fallis is a Canadian-based writer and public relations, consultant. He is also a nominee for Steven Leacock Medal for Humor. His novel “The High road” is what got him nominated for this award. His other great works include The Best Laid Plans which is a novel that was self-published in September 2007. This book also managed to win him the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor. Fallis is an alumnus of McMaster University where he studied engineering.
He engaged in university politics and managed to secure the Presidential position in the University’s Students Union. His novel “The High Road” is full of humor and creates a lot of interest for those that are followers of the political process. In both his novels, he seems to favor political satire and includes a lot of humor in his works. The Best Laid Plans involves a lot of political satire and is based on a political strategist’s plan to get out of politics by managing the political campaign of the least favored candidate in the elections. This was an attempt to sabotage his credibility but there’s a turn of events when the candidate unexpectedly became popular. Fallis’ involvement in politics may have a great influence on his favor of using politics in his novels.
Red Green is known for the show Red Green show and was nominated for the Leacock medal for writing the novel “How to do everything”. Red Green is a character played by Steve Smith. His book offers humor even to those who have a slight one and can perceive their flaws. Red-green began as a television show then proceeded to venture into books, a live stage show, newspapers, and finally a movie. His book is referred to as one of the humorous Canadian classics.
However, book reviewers feel that his book has not been given enough credit perhaps because of its “unserious” topic. They feel that books that contain serious topics such as political satire are often given more credit.
David Rakoff is a Canadian born New York-based writer known for his humorous and non-fiction essays. He has assigned many titles to himself such as “gay writer”, “New York writer”, “Jewish writer”, just to mention a few. He is also known for his latest book, “Half Empty”, which is a series of his third essay collection. He includes a pessimistic style in his writing and gets most readers reveling at the power of negativity.
His essays talk about how the world is condemned to hell. Apart from being a writer, he is also a show host and contributor to the PBS show “This American Life”. He says that his latest book is a collection of emotions that the world tends to choose not to feel because they are not pleasant. He argues that these feelings have their purpose in life and perhaps even a certain amount of beauty to them. He was also nominated for the Leacock Medal.
Having looked at the above authors, we can see that they are all competitors of Todd Babiak having been nominated for the same price category. They all incorporate humor into their books and tend to pick out contemporary issues in society. They are all established writers. Todd Babiak in his book, “Toby: A Man”, he creates the character of a man who is perceived to be a gentleman. He teaches the “ungroomed” how to behave like gentlemen. However, a tragedy happens and his world of handkerchiefs, ties, and suits comes crumbling down. He loses his fiancé whom he discovered was cheating on him.
He gets fired and has to give up his expensive car to go and live with his parents back home. The novel is simplistic and has a happy ending. He indeed uses humor in his novel but what sets Babiak apart from all the other writers is his keen ear for dialogue and his ability to make a story flow. Although some readers might notice how he makes the women characters in his book seem immoral, it remains that his creative nature is by far more prominent than those of other writers. Below are the links to the other writers that have been mentioned above.