Tony Burgess

Burgess’ unique style of writing has been called literary horror fiction and described as ”blended ultra-violent horror and absurdist humour, inflicting nightmarish narratives on the quirky citizens of small-town Ontario: think H. P. Lovecraft meets Stephen Leacock.”

The director of the movie adaptation of Pontypool Changes Everything, Bruce McDonald has described the virus as having three stages, “The first stage is you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it’s words that are terms of endearment, like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is your language becomes scrambled and you can’t express yourself properly. The third stage is that you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.” McDonald also stressed that the victims of the virus detailed in the film were not zombies, instead calling them "conversationalists."

Idaho Winter is Tony Burgess’ first novel for young adults, although it has been called a young adult parody.

Burgess wrote out a script for Pontypool in 48 hours, his approach inspired by Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. He also played in the film adaption of Pontypool and in the science fiction film Ejecta.

Outbreaks of sudden violence is an idea explored in many of Burgess’ works.

Burgess likes to include photos and images in many of his works, such as Ravenna Gets, Idaho Winter and People Live Still in Cashtown Corners. He often takes these photographs himself. He especially likes using pictures that aren’t of anything or representative of looking.

Burgess is currently writing screenplays for Pontypool 2, Pontypool 3, Idaho Winter and a script about the last few weeks of Chet Baker’s life.

In this novel there are allusions to classic children's fare, ranging from The Neverending Story to the Choose Your Own Adventure series — tales that play with the idea of readers and characters controlling the narrative.

The point in the novel when two characters suddenly switch genders was unintentional. According to Burgess: "I came back to the story after leaving it aside for two years and I was confused myself—then I decided, ‘Oh well, that works here.’"

This novel follows a zombie apocalypse that leaves nothing more than a waste disposal problem. After a number of failed experiments at disposal, officials hit on the solution to the problem of aimless, lifeless wanderers clogging the streets: send the dead into orbit. However, the celestial corpses begin to affect the Earth's sunlight, resulting in “Syndrome” – a blend of paranoia, depression, and hypochondria that turns the living into monsters of a different sort.

In 2009, Burgess wrote and performed a musical revue entitled Die! Scream! Die! alongside fellow novelist Derek McCormack at the Scream Literary Festival.

In 1989, Burgess enrolled at the University of Toronto. Six years later, in 1995 he graduated with a degree in semiotics. In 1998, Burgess and his wife, Rachel Jones, moved from their flat in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood to a “shack by the river” in Wasaga Beach, Ontario. At this time, Burgess had a brief musical theatre career during which he starred as Curly in the town's local theatre production of Oklahoma!.

Burgess was born in Toronto and grew up in Mississauga. He graduated in 1978 from Applewood Heights Secondary School in Mississauga, despite having to use day passes from a medium security facility in order to finish high school. Burgess served three months in this security facility for robbing a convenience store with a friend while wearing one of his mother's blouses, inspired after watching A Clockwork Orange and Straight Time.

Tony Burgess (born 1959) is a Canadian novelist and screenwriter. His most notable works include the 1998 novel Pontypool Changes Everything and the screenplay for the film adaptation of that same novel, Pontypool.

Burgess currently resides in Stayner with his wife of fourteen years, Rachel Jones, who is a crown attorney. They have two young children, Griffin and Camille. Their current home is a house that is known by the town as the supposedly haunted former Thistlewaite residence. It was built in 1882 and at one point served the community's funerary needs and has a yard that is rumoured to be riddled with suitcase graves filled with pet cats from a previous owner.