Canadian novelist and poet (born 1943)
Philip Michael Ondaatje CC FRSL /ɒ n ˈ d ɑː tʃ iː Sri Lanka -bornCanadian poet, fiction writer and essayist.[ 1]
Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry: in 1967 he publishedThe Dainty Monsters , and in 1970 the critically acclaimedThe Collected Works of Billy the Kid .[ 2] The English Patient film in 1996,[ 2] Golden Man Booker Prize as the best of the first 51 Booker Prize winners.[ 3]
Ondaatje has been "fostering new Canadian writing"[ 4] Coach House Press (ca. 1970–1990). His editorial credits include the journalBrick Long Poem Anthology (1979), among others.[ 4]
Early life and education [ edit ] Ondaatje was born inColombo ,Sri Lanka , in 1943, to Major Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen ofTamil andBurgher descent (Dutch andSinhalese ).[ 4] [ 5] England .[ 4] Dulwich College .
He emigrated toMontreal ,Quebec , in 1962,[ 6] Bishop's College School andBishop's University inLennoxville ,Quebec , for three years.[ 4] [ 6] University of Toronto receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965,[ 4] Queen's University at Kingston .[ 2]
The poetD. G. Jones noted his poetic ability.[ 4]
Ondaatje began teaching English at theUniversity of Western Ontario inLondon, Ontario .[ 6] Glendon College ,York University .[ 2] [ 6]
Ondaatje has published 13 books of poetry, and won theGovernor General's Award forThe Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) andThere's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1973–1978 (1979).[ 7] Anil's Ghost (2000) was the winner of the 2000Giller Prize , thePrix Médicis , the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the 2001Irish Times International Fiction Prize and Canada'sGovernor General's Award .[ 8] [ 9]
The English Patient Booker Prize , theCanada Australia Prize , and theGovernor General's Award . It was adapted as a motion picture, which won theAcademy Award for Best Picture and multiple other awards.[ 10]
In the Skin of a Lion City of Toronto Book Award , finalist for the 1987 Ritz Paris Hemingway Award for best novel of the year in English, and winner of the firstCanada Reads competition in 2002.Coming Through Slaughter New Orleans, Louisiana , circa 1900, loosely based on the lives of jazz pioneerBuddy Bolden and photographerE. J. Bellocq . It was the winner of the 1976Books in Canada First Novel Award .Running in the Family
Ondaatje's novelDivisadero Governor General's Award . In 2011 Ondaatje worked withDaniel Brooks to create a play based on this novel.[ 11]
In 2018, his novelWarlight was longlisted for theBooker Prize .[ 12]
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid ,Coming Through Slaughter andDivisadero have been adapted for the stage and produced in theatrical productions across North America and Europe. In addition toThe English Patient B.P. Nichol ,Sons of Captain Poetry , andThe Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show , which chronicles a collaborative theatre experience led in 1971 by Paul Thompson ofTheatre Passe Muraille .[ 13]
In 2002, Ondaatje published a non-fiction book,The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film [ 14]
In 1988, Ondaatje was made an Officer of theOrder of Canada which was later upgraded to grade ofCompanion in 2016, the highest level of the order[ 15] [ 16] American Academy of Arts and Letters .[ 17]
In 2005, he receivedSri Lanka Ratna , the highest honour given by the Government of Sri Lanka for foreign nationals.[ 18]
In 2008, he received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement .[ 19] [ 20] Royal Society of Literature in 2012.[ 21]
In 2016, a new species of spider,Brignolia ondaatjei , discovered in Sri Lanka, was named after him.[ 22]
In April 2015, Ondaatje was one of several members ofPEN American Center who withdrew as literary host when the organization gave its annual Freedom of Expression Courage award toCharlie Hebdo shooting attack on the magazine's Paris offices in January 2015.[ 23] [ 24]
Since the 1960s, Ondaatje has been a poetry editor for Toronto'sCoach House Books .[ 25] Linda Spalding , a novelist and academic, co-editBrick, A Literary Journal Michael Redhill ,Michael Helm , andEsta Spalding .[ 14] Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry from 2000 to 2018.[ 26] Sri Lanka that annually awards theGratiaen Prize .
Ondaatje has two children with his first wife, Canadian artistKim Ondaatje .[ 27] Christopher Ondaatje is a philanthropist, businessman and author.[ 28] David Ondaatje is a film director and screenwriter, who made the 2009 filmThe Lodger [ 29]
1976:Coming Through Slaughter ISBN 0-393-08765-4 [ 30] 1987:In the Skin of a Lion [ 30] ISBN 0-394-56363-8 ISBN 0-14-011309-6 1992:The English Patient ISBN 0-679-41678-1 ISBN 0-679-74520-3 [ 10] 2000:Anil's Ghost [ 5] ISBN 0-375-41053-8 2007:Divisadero ISBN 0-307-26635-4 ISBN 9780307266354 [ 11] 2011:The Cat's Table ISBN 978-0-7710-6864-5 ISBN 0-7710-6864-6 [ 10] 2018:Warlight ISBN 077107378X ISBN 978-0771073786 1962: Social Call, The Love Story, In Search of Happiness, all featured inThe Mitre : Lennoxville: Bishop University Press[ 30] 1967:The Dainty Monsters , Toronto: Coach House Press[ 31] 1969:The Man with Seven Toes , Toronto: Coach House Press[ 31] 1970:The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems [ 31] ISBN 0-88784-018-3 1973:Rat Jelly , Toronto: Coach House Press[ 30] 1978:Elimination Dance/La danse eliminatoire , Ilderton: Nairn Coldstream; revised edition, Brick, 1980[ 30] 1979:There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems, 1963–1978 , New York: W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1979[ 30] ISBN 0-393-01191-7 ISBN 0-393-01200-X published asRat Jelly, and Other Poems, 1963–1978 , London, United Kingdom: Marion Boyars, 1980[ 30] 1984:Secular Love , Toronto: Coach House Press,ISBN 0-88910-288-0 ISBN 0-393-01991-8 [ 32] 1986:All along the Mazinaw: Two Poems (broadside), Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Woodland Pattern[ 30] 1986:Two Poems, Woodland Pattern , Milwaukee, Wisconsin[ 30] 1989:The Cinnamon Peeler : Selected Poems[ 30] 1998:Handwriting , Toronto: McClelland & Stewart; New York: Knopf, 1999[ 30] ISBN 0-375-40559-3 2006:The Story , Toronto: House of Anansi,ISBN 0-88784-194-5 [ 30] 2024:A Year of Last Things , London: Jonathan Cape,ISBN 9781787335035 [ 30] 1971:The Broken Ark , animal verse; Ottawa: Oberon; revised asA Book of Beasts , 1979[ 30] ISBN 0-88750-050-1 1977:Personal Fictions: Stories by Munro, Wiebe, Thomas, and Blaise , Toronto: Oxford University Press[ 30] ISBN 0-19-540277-4 1979:A Book of Beasts , animal verse; Ottawa: Oberon; revision ofThe Broken Ark , 1971[ 30] 1979:The Long Poem Anthology , Toronto: Coach House[ 30] ISBN 0-88910-177-9 1989: WithRussell Banks andDavid Young ,Brushes with Greatness: An Anthology of Chance Encounters with Greatness , Toronto: Coach House, 1989[ 30] 1989: Edited withLinda Spalding ,The Brick Anthology , illustrated by David Bolduc, Toronto: Coach House Press[ 30] 1990:From Ink Lake: An Anthology of Canadian Short Stories ; New York: Viking[ 30] ISBN 0-394-28138-1 1990:The Faber Book of Contemporary Canadian Short Stories ; London, United Kingdom: Faber[ 30] 2000: Edited with Michael Redhill, Esta Spalding and Linda Spalding,Lost Classics , Toronto: Knopf CanadaISBN 0-676-97299-3 2002: Edited and wrote introduction,Mavis Gallant , Paris Stories[ 30] 1966:The Offering 1970:Leonard Cohen (literary criticism), Toronto: McClelland & Stewart[ 30] 1973:The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (play; based on his poetry; see "Poetry" section, 1970, above), produced inStratford, Ontario ; produced in New York, 1974; produced in London, England, 1984[ 30] 1979:Claude Glass (literary criticism), Toronto: Coach House Press[ 30] 1980:Coming through Slaughter (play based on his novel; see "Novels" section, 1976, above), first produced in Toronto[ 30] 1982:Running in the Family [ 32] ISBN 0-393-01637-4 ISBN 0-7710-6884-0 1982:Tin Roof , British Columbia, Canada: Island,[ 30] ISBN 0-919479-10-3 ISBN 0-919479-93-6 1987:In the Skin of a Lion (based on his novel), New York: Knopf[ 30] 1994: Edited withB. P. Nichol andGeorge Bowering ,An H in the Heart: A Reader , Toronto: McClelland & Stewart[ 30] 1996: Wrote introduction,Anthony Minghella , adaptor,The English Patient: A Screenplay , New York: Hyperion Miramax[ 30] 2002:The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film [ 14] ISBN 0-676-97474-0 2002:Films by Michael Ondaatje [ 33] 2004:Vintage Ondaatje ,[ 30] ISBN 1-4000-7744-3 ^ Aaron, Jane (2016).The compact reader . Macmillan Education. p. 63. ^a b c d Thesen, Sharon."Michael Ondaatje" .The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved30 November 2016 . ^ "Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient wins prestigious Golden Man Booker Prize | CBC Books" .^a b c d e f g "Michael Ondaatje." InAn Anthology of Canadian Literature in English , edited by Donna Bennett and Russell Brown, 928-30. 3rd ed. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press, 2010. ^a b Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek (January 2005).Comparative Cultural Studies and Michael Ondaatje's Writing Purdue University Press . p. 6.ISBN 978-1-55753-378-4 ^a b c d "(Philip) Michael Ondaatje." InGale Online Encyclopedia . Detroit: Gale, 2016.Literature Resource Center . Retrieved 30 November 2016. ^ Reporter, Vit Wagner Staff (28 November 2007)."Ondaatje wins 5th Governor General's award" .Toronto Star . Retrieved21 October 2024 . ^ "Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje | Penguin Random House Canada" .www.penguinrandomhouse.ca . Retrieved21 October 2024 .^ "Irish Times International Fiction Prize | Awards and Honors | LibraryThing" .LibraryThing.com . Retrieved21 October 2024 .^a b c Schillinger, Liesl (14 October 2011),"Michael Ondaatje's Passage From Ceylon" .The New York Times . ^a b "How Michael Ondaatje and Daniel Brooks made 'Divisadero' into a play" . Kate Taylor, Toronto —The Globe and Mail , 4 February 2011.^ "Man Booker prize 2018 longlist – in pictures" .The Guardian . 23 July 2018.ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved24 July 2018 .^ "Michael Ondaatje | Writer, Director, Actor" .IMDb . Retrieved21 October 2024 .^a b c "Michael Ondaatje" .The Morning News , by Robert Birnbaum.^ "Order of Canada: Michael Ondaatje, O.C., M.A." ,Governor General of Canada website.^ "Governor General Announces 100 New Appointments to the Order of Canada as Canada Turns 150" .The Governor General of Canada His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston . Retrieved31 December 2016 .^ "Membership" .American Academy of Arts and Letters . Retrieved21 October 2024 .^ "National Honors Gazette Notification" (PDF) . Archived from the original on 24 July 2010. Retrieved21 October 2024 .{{cite web }}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link )^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" .www.achievement.org .American Academy of Achievement .^ "2008 Summit Highlights Photo" . 2008.Poet and Hawaii resident W.S. Merwin meets novelist Michael Ondaatje at the International Achievement Summit. ^ "Ondaatje, Michael" .Royal Society of Literature . 1 September 2023. Retrieved30 June 2025 .^ Selvadurai, Shyam (10 August 2016),"New spider species named for Michael Ondaatje" .CBC Books . ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (26 April 2015),"Six PEN Members Decline Gala After Award for Charlie Hebdo" ,The New York Times . Retrieved 7 May 2015. ^ kanopi_admin (5 May 2015)."PEN Receives Letter from Members About Charlie Hebdo Award" .PEN America . Retrieved21 October 2024 . ^ "Michael Ondaatje" .^ "C$80,000 Griffin Poetry Prize Launched by Renowned Literary Figures: Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young" Archived 13 May 2016 at theWayback Machine ,griffinpoetryprize.com , 6 September 2000.^ "ONDAATJE, Kim" .Glenhyrst . Retrieved17 October 2024 .^ "Sir (Philip) Christopher Ondaatje - National Portrait Gallery" .^ "The Lodger forces out a remake of a remake" ,Village Voice , 21 January 2009.^a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Web page titled"Archive: Michael Ondaatje (1943– )" at the Poetry Foundation website. Retrieved 7 May 2008. ^a b c McCrum, Robert (28 August 2011),"Michael Ondaatje: The divided man" .The Guardian .^a b Gale, Cengage Learning (2016).A Study Guide for Michael Ondaatje's "The Cinnamon Peeler" ISBN 978-1-4103-4284-3 ^ Films by Michael Ondaatje Archived 21 July 2011 at theWayback Machine Comparative Cultural Studies and Michael Ondaatje's Writing . Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2005.ISBN 1-55753-378-4 Barbour, Douglas.Michael Ondaatje. New York: Twayne, 1993.ISBN 0-8057-8290-7 Jewinski, Ed.Michael Ondaatje: Express Yourself Beautifully . Toronto: ECW, 1994.ISBN 1-55022-189-2 Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven (斯蒂文·托托西演). 文学研究的合法化: 一种新实用主义 ·整体化和经主 义文学与文化研究方法 (Legitimizing the Study of Literature: A New Pragmatism and the Systemic Approach to Literature and Culture). Trans. Ma Jui-ch'i (马瑞琪翻). Beijing: Peking University Press, 1997. 111–34.ISBN 7-301-03482-2 Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. "Cultures, Peripheralities, and Comparative Literature." in Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek (ed.).Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application . Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. 150–65.ISBN 90-420-0534-3
1969–79 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
1990s 2000s Michael Ondaatje ,Anil's Ghost David Adams Richards ,Mercy among the Children Richard B. Wright ,Clara Callan Austin Clarke ,The Polished Hoe M. G. Vassanji ,The In-Between World of Vikram Lall Alice Munro ,Runaway David Bergen ,The Time in Between Vincent Lam ,Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures Elizabeth Hay ,Late Nights on Air Joseph Boyden ,Through Black Spruce Linden MacIntyre ,The Bishop's Man 2010s Johanna Skibsrud ,The Sentimentalists Esi Edugyan ,Half-Blood Blues Will Ferguson ,419 Lynn Coady ,Hellgoing Sean Michaels ,Us Conductors André Alexis ,Fifteen Dogs Madeleine Thien ,Do Not Say We Have Nothing Michael Redhill ,Bellevue Square Esi Edugyan ,Washington Black Ian Williams ,Reproduction 2020s
1930s 1940s Ringuet ,Thirty Acres Alan Sullivan ,Three Came to Ville Marie (1941)G. Herbert Sallans ,Little Man Thomas Head Raddall ,The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek (1943)Gwethalyn Graham ,Earth and High Heaven Hugh MacLennan ,Two Solitudes Winifred Bambrick ,Continental Revue (1946)Gabrielle Roy ,The Tin Flute Hugh MacLennan ,The Precipice Philip Child ,Mr. Ames Against Time (1949)1950s Germaine Guèvremont ,The Outlander Morley Callaghan ,The Loved and the Lost (1951)David Walker ,The Pillar (1952)David Walker ,Digby (1953)Igor Gouzenko ,The Fall of a Titan (1954)Lionel Shapiro ,The Sixth of June (1955)Adele Wiseman ,The Sacrifice (1956)Gabrielle Roy ,Street of Riches Colin McDougall ,Execution Hugh MacLennan ,The Watch That Ends the Night 1960s 1970s Dave Godfrey ,The New Ancestors (1970)Mordecai Richler ,St. Urbain's Horseman Robertson Davies ,The Manticore Rudy Wiebe ,The Temptations of Big Bear (1973)Margaret Laurence ,The Diviners Brian Moore ,The Great Victorian Collection Marian Engel ,Bear Timothy Findley ,The Wars Alice Munro ,Who Do You Think You Are? Jack Hodgins ,The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (1979)1980s George Bowering ,Burning Water (1980)Mavis Gallant ,Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories (1981)Guy Vanderhaeghe ,Man Descending Leon Rooke ,Shakespeare's Dog Josef Škvorecký ,The Engineer of Human Souls (1984)Margaret Atwood ,The Handmaid's Tale Alice Munro ,The Progress of Love M. T. Kelly ,A Dream Like Mine (1987)David Adams Richards ,Nights Below Station Street Paul Quarrington ,Whale Music 1990s Nino Ricci ,Lives of the Saints Rohinton Mistry ,Such a Long Journey Michael Ondaatje ,The English Patient Carol Shields ,The Stone Diaries Rudy Wiebe ,A Discovery of Strangers (1994)Greg Hollingshead ,The Roaring Girl (1995)Guy Vanderhaeghe ,The Englishman's Boy Jane Urquhart ,The Underpainter Diane Schoemperlen ,Forms of Devotion (1998)Matt Cohen ,Elizabeth and After 2000s Michael Ondaatje ,Anil's Ghost Richard B. Wright ,Clara Callan Gloria Sawai ,A Song for Nettie Johnson (2002)Douglas Glover ,Elle (2003)Miriam Toews ,A Complicated Kindness David Gilmour ,A Perfect Night to Go to China Peter Behrens ,The Law of Dreams Michael Ondaatje ,Divisadero Nino Ricci ,The Origin of Species (2008)Kate Pullinger ,The Mistress of Nothing (2009)2010s Dianne Warren ,Cool Water (2010)Patrick deWitt ,The Sisters Brothers Linda Spalding ,The Purchase (2012)Eleanor Catton ,The Luminaries Thomas King ,The Back of the Turtle Guy Vanderhaeghe ,Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (2015)Madeleine Thien ,Do Not Say We Have Nothing Joel Thomas Hynes ,We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night Sarah Henstra ,The Red Word Joan Thomas ,Five Wives 2020s
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
International National Academics Artists People Other
