Will Ferguson spent five years in Asia, based in Japan, with travels to Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, and China. He is the author of Beyond Belfast, which charts a 560-mile walk across Northern Ireland in the rain, and Hitching Rides with Buddha, about an end-to-end journey across Japan by thumb. His work has been published in twenty-three languages and twice nominated for an IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. A three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour, his most recent novel, 419, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for literature. He lives in Calgary with his wife, Terumi, and their two sons.