Joel Yanofsky
Joel Yanofsky (26 September 1955 – 23 December 2020) was a Canadian novelist and literary columnist. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he grew up in the Laval suburb of Chomedey, where his parents had moved from the Montreal Jewish neighbourhood around St. Urbain Street. Yanofsky's reviews and articles have appeared in "The Village Voice", "Canadian Geographic", "Chatelaine", "The Globe and Mail", "The Toronto Star" and "The Montreal Gazette", among others. He earned the dubious honour of having once been evicted from the Ritz Carlton bar in Montreal in the company of John Updike. He was also a journalism instructor  at Concordia University. His published works include "Jacob's Ladder", "Homo Erectus: And Other Popular Tales of True Romance", and "Mordecai and Me: An Appreciation of a Kind". "Mordecai and Me" was a shortlisted nominee for the 2003 Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. His book, a memoir entitled "Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism", was inspired by the experiences with his autistic son Jonah.