Paul Quarrington

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Paul Quarrington

Born July 22, 1953 (1953-07-22) (age 54)
Toronto, Ontario
Occupation novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician
Nationality Canadian
Genres Humour
Notable award(s) 1989 Governor General's Award for Fiction for 'Whale Music' and winner of the 1988 Stephen Leacock Award for 'King Leary'
[Quarrington.org Official website]

Paul Lewis Quarrington (born July 22, 1953) is a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and musician. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he grew up in the suburb of Don Mills and studied at the University of Toronto.

Contents

[edit] Early Works and Novel Themes

Quarrington wrote his early novels while working as the bass player for the group Joe Hall and the Continental Drift. His most successful novel to date, Whale Music was called "the greatest rock'n'roll novel ever written" by Penthouse magazine. Quarrington's novels are characterized by their humour (King Leary received the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1988) although they address serious subjects. His heroes are largely emotionally crippled and have withdrawn from society; typically, in Quarrington's work, an agent of some sort (a young woman in Whale Music, ghosts in King Leary) draws them back into the fold of humanity. Quarrington's novel, Galveston (published in the United States as Storm Chasers) was nominated for the prestigious Giller Prize. He lost to Alice Munro which, Quarrington stated afterward, "was hard to feel upset about. It's like losing to Chekhov." His novel The Ravine was published in March of 2008. Quarrington is currently working on two film adaptations (one short, one feature length) of that novel, which he claims is "semi-autobiographical." "It's about a writer who squanders his talents in television, drinks too much, screws around and ruins his marriage," Quarrington has said. "The reason it's 'semi-autobiographical' is the guy's name is 'Phil.'"

[edit] Cinema and Television

Quarrington's adaptation (with director Richard J. Lewis) of Whale Music was nominated for numerous Genie Awards. (Actor Maury Chaykin won best actor for his portrayal of the drug-addled Desmond Howl.) The screenplay for Perfectly Normal, a comedy that combined hockey and grand opera, won the award. Quarrington has also worked in the television industry, acting as writer and/or producer on such shows as Due South, Power Play, and most recently, the Showcase comedy Moose TV.

[edit] Theatre

Quarrington's work for the stage includes Dying is Easy, The Invention of Poetry and Three Ways From Sunday.

[edit] Music

Quarrington is also the singer/guitarist for the blues/roots/country ensemble Porkbelly Futures. Their first CD, Way Past Midnight was released in late 2005 by Wildflower Records (owned by singer Judy Collins) and spent six months on the "Americana" charts. Their second CD, "Porkbelly Futures" will be released by Cordova Bay Entertainment Group in April of 2008. It contains many of Quarrington's original compositions.

[edit] King Leary

In February of 2008, Quarrington's 1987 novel King Leary was put forward by Dave Bidini as one of the five books considered on CBC Radio's Canada Reads. Bidini ultimately prevailed, and King Leary was named the book that everyone in the nation should read. Quarrington vowed publicly on Jian Ghomeshi's show Q to buy Bidini's beer for the rest of his life. (It doesn't matter whose life; the arrangement is going to end when either party bites it.) Because Quarrington's alcohol consumption is so prodigious, this arrangement may not last long.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels

[edit] Non-Fiction

  • Hometown Heroes: On the Road with Canada's National Hockey Team - 1988
  • Fishing with my Old Guy - 1995
  • The Boy on the Back of the Turtle - 1997
  • Fishing for Brookies, Browns and Bows: The Old Guy's Complete Guide to Catching Trout - 2001
  • From the Far Side of the River - 2003

[edit] Drama

  • The Invention of Poetry (1990)
  • Checkout Time (1996)
  • Dying is Easy (1997)
  • Heart in a Bottle (2001)
  • Three Ways from Sunday (2007)

[edit] External links