Michael Ondaatje's picture
61 followers

Michael Ondaatje


(Philip Michael Ondaatje)
Sri Lanka (b.1943)

Philip Michael Ondaatje, OC, is a Sri Lankan Canadian novelist and poet, perhaps best known for his Booker Prize winning novel adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film, The English Patient.

Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje's work also encompasses memoir, poetry, and film. His semi-fictional memoir of his Sri Lankan childhood is called Running in the Family (1982). He has published thirteen books of poetry, and won the Governor General's Award for two of them: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) and There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1973-1978 (1979).

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and Coming Through Slaughter have been adapted for the stage and produced in numerous theatrical productions across North America. Ondaatje's three films include a documentary on fellow poet bp nichol, Sons of Captain Poetry, and The Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show, which chronicles a collaborative theatre experience led in 1971 by Paul Thompson of Theatre Passe Muraille. In 2002 he published a non-fiction book, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, which won special recognition at the 2003 American Cinema Editors Awards, as well as a Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for best book of the year on the moving image.

Ondaatje has, since the 1960s, also been involved with Toronto's influential Coach House Books, supporting the independent small press by working as a poetry editor.

In 1988 Michael Ondaatje was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) and two years later became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He has two children and is the brother of philanthropist, businessman, and author Christopher Ondaatje.
 

Genres: Literary Fiction
 
New and upcoming books
Novels
   Coming Through Slaughter (1977)
   Running in the Family (1982)
   In the Skin of a Lion (1987)
   The English Patient (1992)
   Anil's Ghost (1999)
   Divisadero (2007)
   The Cat's Table (2011)
   Warlight (2018)
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
 
Collections
   The Dainty Monsters (poems) (1967)
   The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (poems) (1970)
   The Broken Ark (poems) (1971)
   Rat Jelly (poems) (1979)
   There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do (poems) (1979)
   Tin roof (poems) (1982)
   Secular Love (poems) (1984)
   Two poems (poems) (1986)
   The Cinnamon Peeler (poems) (1989)
   Elimination Dance (poems) (1991)
   Previous Canoes (poems) (1994)
   Handwriting (poems) (1998)
   Vintage Ondaatje (2004)
   The Story (2006)
   A Year of Last Things (poems) (2024)
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumbno image availablethumb
thumbthumbthumb
 
Anthologies edited
thumbthumb
 
Plays show
 
Non fiction show
 
Michael Ondaatje recommends
thumb
The Pyramid (2008)
(Kurt Wallander)
Henning Mankell
"[A writer] whose works transcend their chosen genre to become thrilling and moral literature."
thumb
The Pages (2008)
Murray Bail
"Murray Bail is the warmest and most quick-witted of storytellers."
thumb
Vintage Baldwin (2004)
James Baldwin
"If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one."

More recommendations 


Anthologies containing stories by Michael Ondaatje
thumb
The Canlit Foodbook (1987)
From Pen to palate - A Collection of Tasty Literary Fare
edited by
Margaret Atwood

Awards
Booker Prize Best Novel winner (1992) : The English Patient
Booker Prize Best Novel nominee (2018) : Warlight
Walter Scott Prize Best Historical Novel nominee (2019) : Warlight


Visitors also looked at these authors


About Fantastic Fiction       Information for Authors