Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje (Philip Michael Ondaatje) , 1943-, Canadian writer, b. Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Emigrating (1962) to Canada, he attended the Univ. of Toronto (B.A., 1965) and Queen's Univ., Ontario (M.A., 1967). Since 1971 he has been an English professor at Glendon College, York Univ., Toronto. His first published works were poems, noted for their mixture of fact and fiction, real and surreal. His Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) blends poetry, prose, and visual materials into a compelling portrait of the American outlaw. Other poetry collections include The Dainty Monsters (1967), Rat Jelly (1973), The Cinnamon Peeler (1990), and Handwriting (1998). Ondaatje is best known for his novels, which also blend reality and imagination, exploring a variety of cultures and mingling present and past in richly evocative prose. The antithesis of linear narrative, his fiction is filled with incident and coincidence, often changing abruptly in time, style, and point of view. With his most celebrated novel, The English Patient (1992; film 1996), a tale of love and betrayal set in a ruined Italian villa during World War II, Ondaatje became the first Canadian to win the Booker Prize. His other novels are Coming through Slaughter (1976), In the Skin of a Lion (1987), Anil's Ghost (2000), and Divisadero (2007). He has also written screenplays and edited anthologies and a literary journal.

Bibliography: See his memoir, Running in the Family (1982); studies by L. Mundwiler (1984), S. Solecki, ed. (1985), D. Barbour (1993), and E. Jewinski (1994).

Ondaatje, Michael (1943– ), Canadian poet and novelist, born in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), educated at the University of Toronto and at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He first came to critical notice as a poet, with The Dainty Monsters (1967), The Man With Seven Toes (1969), Rat Jelly (1973), and There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do (1979). The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) is a collage of poetry and prose and visual devices. Coming Through Slaughter (1976), a fictionalized life of the legendary jazz musician Charles ‘Buddy’ Bolden (1876–1931), was followed by Running in the Family (1982), which draws on his family's Sri Lankan past. The English Patient (1991, joint winner of the Booker Prize), set at the end of the Second World War, was made into a successful film directed by Anthony Minghella. Amil's Ghost (2000) is set in present-day Sri Lanka against the backdrop of civil war. Handwriting (1998) is a collection of poems.