Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a

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n-born

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poet, fiction writer and essayist. Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing ''The Dainty Monsters'', and then in 1970 the critically acclaimed '' The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.'' His novel '' The English Patient'' (1992), adapted into a

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

in 1996 and won the 1992 Golden Man Booker Prize. Ondaatje has been "fostering new Canadian writing""Michael Ondaatje." In ''An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English'', edited by Donna Bennett and Russell Brown, 928-30. 3rd ed. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press, 2010. with two decades commitment to

Coach House Press Coach House Books is an independent book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Coach House publishes experimental poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. The press is particularly interested in writing that pushes at the boundar ...

(ca. 1970–1990), and his editorial credits include the journal ''

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'', and the ''Long Poem Anthology'' (1979), among others.

Early life and education

Ondaatje was born in

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, in 1943, to Major Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen of Tamil and Burgher descent ( Dutch and Sinhalese). In 1954, he re-joined his mother in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. where he attended

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

. He emigrated to

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, in 1962,"(Philip) Michael Ondaatje." In ''Gale Online Encyclopedia''. Detroit: Gale, 2016. ''Literature Resource Center''. Retrieved 30 November 2016. studying at Bishop's College School and

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

in Lennoxville,

, for three years. He attended the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965, followed by a Master of Arts from

Queen's University at Kingston Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public university, public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than of land throughout Ontario and ...

. The poet D. G. Jones noted his poetic ability. Ondaatje began teaching English at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

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. In 1971, he taught English literature at Glendon College,

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Work

Ondaatje has published 13 books of poetry, and won the Governor General's Award for ''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). Anil's Ghost (2000) was the winner of the 2000 Giller Prize, the

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis () is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and .

, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the 2001

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and Canada's Governor General's Award. '' The English Patient'' (1992) won the Booker Prize, the Canada Australia Prize, and the Governor General's Award. It was adapted as a motion picture, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and multiple other awards.Schillinger, Liesl (14 October 2011)
"Michael Ondaatje's Passage From Ceylon"
''The New York Times''. '' In the Skin of a Lion'' (1987), a novel about early immigrants in Toronto, was the winner of the 1988 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 first

Canada Reads ''Canada Reads'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language ''Canada Reads'' on CBC Radio One, and the Fre ...

competition in 2002. '' Coming Through Slaughter'' (1976), is a novel set in

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, circa 1900, loosely based on the lives of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and photographer E. J. Bellocq. It was the winner of the 1976 Books in Canada First Novel Award. '' Running in the Family'' (1982) is a childhood memoir. Ondaatje's novel '' Divisadero'' won the 2007 Governor General's Award. In 2011 Ondaatje worked with Daniel Brooks to create a play based on this novel."How Michael Ondaatje and Daniel Brooks made 'Divisadero' into a play"
Kate Taylor, Toronto — ''The Globe and Mail'', 4 February 2011. In 2018, his novel ''Warlight'' was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Adaptations

''The Collected Works of Billy the Kid'', ''Coming Through Slaughter'' and ''Divisadero'' have been adapted for the stage and produced in theatrical productions across North America and Europe. In addition to ''The English Patient'' adaptation, Ondaatje's films include a documentary on poet B.P. 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, Ondaatje 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.

Honours

In 1988, Ondaatje was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

which was later upgraded to grade of Companion in 2016, the highest level of the order and two years later a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. In 2005, he received Sri Lanka Ratna, the highest honour given by the Government of Sri Lanka for foreign nationals. In 2008, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2016, a new species of spider, ''Brignolia ondaatjei'', discovered in Sri Lanka, was named after him.

Public stand

In April 2015, Ondaatje was one of several members of PEN American Center who withdrew as literary host when the organization gave its annual Freedom of Expression Courage award to ''

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''. The award came in the wake of the shooting attack on the magazine's Paris offices in January 2015. Ondaatje, along with 60 other writers, signed a letter to PEN expressing concern that the award valorized "selectively offensive material: material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world."

Personal life

Since the 1960s, Ondaatje has been a poetry editor for Toronto's Coach House Books. Ondaatje and his wife, Linda Spalding, a novelist and academic, co-edit '' Brick, A Literary Journal'', with Michael Redhill, Michael Helm, and Esta Spalding."Michael Ondaatje"
''The Morning News'', by Robert Birnbaum. Ondaatje served as a founding member of the board of trustees of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry from 2000 to 2018. He established the Gratiaen Trust in

that annually awards the Gratiaen Prize. Ondaatje has two children with his first wife, Canadian artist Kim Ondaatje. His brother Sir Christopher Ondaatje is a philanthropist, businessman and author. Ondaatje's nephew David Ondaatje is a film director and screenwriter, who made the 2009 film '' The Lodger''.

Books

Novels

* 1976: '' Coming Through Slaughter'' (also see "Other" section, 1980, below), Toronto: Anansi, ; New York: W. W. Norton, 1977Web page title
"Archive: Michael Ondaatje (1943– )"
at the Poetry Foundation website. Retrieved 7 May 2008. * 1987: '' In the Skin of a Lion'', New York: Knopf, , * 1992: '' The English Patient'', New York: Knopf, , * 2000: '' Anil's Ghost'', New York: Knopf, * 2007: '' Divisadero'', * 2011: '' The Cat's Table'', , * 2018: '' Warlight'', ,

Poetry collections

* 1962: Social Call, The Love Story, In Search of Happiness, all featured in The Mitre: Lennoxville: Bishop University Press * 1967: ''The Dainty Monsters'', Toronto: Coach House Press McCrum, Robert (28 August 2011)
"Michael Ondaatje: The divided man"
''The Guardian''. * 1969: ''The Man with Seven Toes'', Toronto: Coach House Press * 1970: '' The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems'' (also see "Other" section, 1973, below), Toronto: Anansi ; New York: Berkeley, 1975 * 1973: ''Rat Jelly'', Toronto: Coach House Press * 1978: ''Elimination Dance/La danse eliminatoire'', Ilderton: Nairn Coldstream; revised edition, Brick, 1980 * 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 , ** published as ''Rat Jelly, and Other Poems, 1963–1978'', London, United Kingdom: Marion Boyars, 1980 * 1984: ''Secular Love'', Toronto: Coach House Press, , ; New York: W. W. Norton, 1985 * 1986: ''All along the Mazinaw: Two Poems'' (broadside), Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Woodland Pattern * 1986: ''Two Poems, Woodland Pattern'', Milwaukee, Wisconsin * 1989: '' The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems'', London, United Kingdom: Pan; New York: Knopf, 1991 * 1998: ''Handwriting'', Toronto: McClelland & Stewart; New York: Knopf, 1999 * 2006: ''The Story'', Toronto: House of Anansi, * 2024: ''A Year of Last Things'', London: Jonathan Cape,

Editor

* 1971: ''The Broken Ark'', animal verse; Ottawa: Oberon; revised as ''A Book of Beasts'', 1979 * 1977: ''Personal Fictions: Stories by Munro, Wiebe, Thomas, and Blaise'', Toronto: Oxford University Press * 1979: ''A Book of Beasts'', animal verse; Ottawa: Oberon; revision of ''The Broken Ark'', 1971 * 1979: ''The Long Poem Anthology'', Toronto: Coach House * 1989: With Russell Banks and David Young, ''Brushes with Greatness: An Anthology of Chance Encounters with Greatness'', Toronto: Coach House, 1989 * 1989: Edited with Linda Spalding, ''The Brick Anthology'', illustrated by David Bolduc, Toronto: Coach House Press * 1990: ''From Ink Lake: An Anthology of Canadian Short Stories''; New York: Viking * 1990: ''The Faber Book of Contemporary Canadian Short Stories''; London, United Kingdom: Faber * 2000: Edited with Michael Redhill, Esta Spalding and Linda Spalding, ''Lost Classics'', Toronto: Knopf Canada ; New York: Anchor, 2001 * 2002: Edited and wrote introduction, '' Mavis Gallant, Paris Stories'', New York: New York Review Books

Other

* 1966: '' The Offering'' - co-producer and co-screenwriter * 1970: ''Leonard Cohen'' (literary criticism), Toronto: McClelland & Stewart * 1973: ''The Collected Works of Billy the Kid'' (play; based on his poetry; see "Poetry" section, 1970, above), produced in

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; produced in New York, 1974; produced in London, England, 1984 * 1979: ''Claude Glass'' (literary criticism), Toronto: Coach House Press * 1980: ''Coming through Slaughter'' (play based on his novel; see "Novels" section, 1976, above), first produced in Toronto * 1982: '' Running in the Family'', memoir, New York: W. W. Norton, , * 1982: ''Tin Roof'', British Columbia, Canada: Island, , * 1987: ''In the Skin of a Lion'' (based on his novel), New York: Knopf * 1994: Edited with B. P. Nichol and George Bowering, ''An H in the Heart: A Reader'', Toronto: McClelland & Stewart * 1996: Wrote introduction, Anthony Minghella, adaptor, ''The English Patient: A Screenplay'', New York: Hyperion Miramax * 2002: '' The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film'', New York: Knopf, * 2002: ''Films by Michael Ondaatje''Films by Michael Ondaatje
* 2004: ''Vintage Ondaatje'',

Notes

External links

On Michael Ondaatje's late style, in the Literary Review of Canada, by
Moez Surani. * Jane Henderson (2 May 2016).
Ondaatje wins St. Louis Literary Award
. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 22 July 2016. *
"I came from a tussle with the sea": An interview with Michael Ondaatje
in '' Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts'' (24.2)
Full text of ''The Dainty Monsters''"Adventures in the Skin Trade"
PEN World Voices at LIVE from the

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. 4 May 2008 (Video, 1hr, 6 min)
Transcript of interview
with Ramona Koval on '' The Book Show'', ABC Radio National on ''Divisadero'' recorded in Montreal, April 2007.
Profile. Emory University

Order of Canada Citation
''

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'', November 1996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ondaatje, Michael 1943 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian poets Bishop's College School alumni Booker Prize winners Burgher people Sri Lankan journalists Burgher poets Burgher writers Canadian Film Centre alumni Canadian male novelists Canadian male poets Canadian people of Dutch descent Canadian people of Tamil descent Companions of the Order of Canada Dickinson family (Midwestern United States) Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Governor General's Award–winning fiction writers Governor General's Award–winning poets Harbourfront Festival Prize winners Living people People educated at Dulwich College Writers from Colombo People from British Ceylon Prix Médicis étranger winners Queen's University at Kingston alumni Sri Lanka Rathna Sri Lankan emigrants to Canada University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario Poets from Montreal Poets from Toronto Novelists from Toronto Academic staff of York University M Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners Academic staff of Glendon College Indian Tamil writers of Sri Lanka