He settled into driving a taxi by night and writing by day until the publication of his first novel, High Water Chants, in 1977, which Dennis Lee called one of the best in the language.

His second novel, Onyx John, in 1985, received (arguably) the highest critical acclaim in the history of Canadian literature.

Trevor Ferguson's most recent literally novel was The River Burns, published by Simon and Schuster in 2014, the paperback in 2015.

In November 2019, Ball Park under his nom de plume John Farrow was released, with a young Detective Emile Cinq-Mars set in Montreal 1975.

A new trilogy of John Farrow crime novels, The Storm Murders, has been sold to Thomas Dunne Books/St.

Guy Sprung) in Montreal and has become the first English play in history to be nominated by l'académie québécoise du theatre for a Masque award for best text.

His second play, Beach House, Burnt Sienna, was chosen to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Village Theatre West in Hudson in 2002.

In June 2019, Trevor Ferguson received an Honorary Doctorate, of Divinity, courtesy of the Vancouver School of Theology, for his work as a novelist.