To that exclusive list you can now add local resident and businessman Terry Fallis. He won the $10,000 prize for his debut novel The Best Laid Plans, a satirical look at Canadian politics, which he had to self-publish.
"These are my literary heroes," he said in a telephone interview with The Mirror. "These are people I have read and loved and collected first editions of their books.
"And for my first novel to be on a list with the likes of them is astonishing to me."
Fallis, 48, who is married with two sons, has lived in the Moore Park area for about 15 years.
For just slightly less time than that he has operated a full-service communications and public relations agency at 1300 Yonge St. (at St. Clair Avenue) with his business partner Joe Thornley. The business, called Thornley Fallis, also has an Ottawa office.
He was born and raised in Leaside, and spent his entire high school years at Leaside High School.
He is a contemporary of Prime Minister Stephen Harper who spent his pre-teen years in Leaside prior to his family moving to Etobicoke.
"He (Harper) went to Northlea (school), I went to Bessborough Drive (school)," said Fallis, who added he's certain they would have crossed paths in the Leaside Hockey Association house league.
"We certainly played against each other, if we weren't on the same team."
As to whether he thinks Harper will read his book, being a fellow Leaside house league grad, he said, with a chuckle, "I wonder, I'm not sure, that's interesting."
The way the award process works is that, assuming some basic criteria are met, any Canadian author can enter by sending 10 copies of the book and $100. The several dozen entries are then whittled down to five before the winner is declared.
"When you self-publish, you are your own publicist," Fallis said. "At the time there were no entries in yet for the 2008 award.
"I had this stack of books in my office so I thought, what the heck, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It's one way to get 10 or 11 new readers (the judges) of the novel.
"So I packaged up a box with 10 books and sent my cheque in and just didn't think much of it.
"And certainly as the entry list grew and such wonderful writers found their way on the list I just put it out of my mind, I just didn't think it was remotely possible."
With his inclusion on the short list, he said, "you could have knocked me over with a feather - I was completely shocked."
And then to be declared the winner ...
"Well, if I could be more shocked than I was on the shortlist, then I was.
"I had no expectation of being on the shortlist so I certainly had no expectation of winning.
Heavyweight Canadian publisher McLelland and Stewart has scooped up the book for a fall release.
According to the publisher's summary, the book is about a burned-out 30-something Liberal speech writer who, as penance for abandoning his party on the eve of an election to accept a faculty position with the University of Ottawa's English department, must find a Liberal candidate to run in a Tory stronghold.
He entices his landlord, a fellow professor, to run in exchange for teaching one of his first-year English classes.
According to the summary, the pair land in the middle of a hilarious political maelstrom that tests not only their friendship but their beliefs in government and democracy.
"It's a satire of Canadian politics, although many have told me that they hate politics but they loved the book," Fallis said. "I worry sometimes that I'm limiting its audience by describing it as a satirical novel of Canadian politics because it appears it may be more than that to some other people who have read it."
His interest in politics comes naturally. He earned his bachelor of engineering at McMaster University but perhaps more germane to his career, he was elected president of the student union.
When he graduated he stayed in politics, joining prime minister Jean Chretien's full-time staff for the 1984 Liberal Leadership campaign, and rising steadily through the backrooms of the Liberal party.
Under the short-lived government of prime minister John Turner, Fallis served on the staff of Liberal youth minister Jean Lapierre and then became Lapierre's legislative assistant in opposition when Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney won his landslide victory in 1984.
The following year, Fallis traded Parliament Hill for Queen's Park to serve as the legislative assistant to finance minister Robert Nixon in the newly elected David Peterson government.
He stepped out of the Liberal backrooms in 1998, joining a major international PR firm where he served as a government affairs and communications consultant prior to starting his own firm.
For the last two decades, as his company's website states, he has "counselled corporate and government clients on crisis communications, media relations, issues management, marketing communications, public opinion polling, public affairs, stakeholder relations" and has also "written speeches for CEOs, cabinet ministers and other community leaders."
He has remained active within the Liberal party and most recently hosted and produced the Michael Ignatieff leadership podcast during the leadership race.
Although a Liberal hack, he assures the book is not partisan, taking aim at politics in general.
"Everyone comes in for some shots," he said. "The issues or the shortcomings in Canadian politics are apparent in all parties."
As for a followup novel, Fallis concedes with a laugh that he still has to write it, but that a sequel is a distinct possibility.
Despite his immediate literary success, though, he doesn't think his co-workers and clients need to make alternate arrangements, at least at this point.
"I had pretty good luck writing it in the evenings and the weekends the last time around," he said.
"I don't think I'm going to be leaving my day job any time soon."