Shyam Selvadurai (born 12 February 1965) is a Sri Lankan Canadian novelist. He is most noted for his 1994 novel '' Funny Boy'', which won the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the

Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction The Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to ...

.Paul Chafe
"Shyam Selvadurai"
''

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'', April 2, 2012.

Background

Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka to a

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language prima ...

mother and a Tamil father—members of conflicting ethnic groups whose troubles form a major theme in his work. Ethnic riots in 1983 drove the family to emigrate to Canada when Selvadurai was nineteen. He studied creative and professional writing as part of a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...

. Selvadurai recounted an account of the discomfort he and his partner experienced during a period spent in Sri Lanka in 1997 in his essay "Coming Out" in ''Time'' Asia's special issue on the Asian diaspora in 2003.

Writing career

Selvadurai published ''Funny Boy'' in 1994, and followed up in 1998 with the novel ''Cinnamon Gardens''. In 2004, Selvadurai edited a collection of short stories: ''Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers'', which includes works by

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and W ...

, Monica Ali, and

Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British literature, British writers ...

, among others. He published a young adult novel, ''Swimming in the Monsoon Sea'', in 2005. ''Swimming'' won the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted ...

in the Children's and Youth Literature category in 2006. He was a contributor to ''TOK: Writing the New Toronto, Book 1''. In 2013, he released a fourth novel, ''The Hungry Ghosts''. In 2013 Selvadurai's ''Funny Boy'' was included in the syllabus under marginalized study and gay literature of the under graduate English Department of

The American College in Madurai The American College, often referred to as American College, is one of the oldest colleges in India, located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1881 by American Christian missionaries. The red-brick buildings, in the Saracenic style, ble ...

. In 2014, he was presented the Bonham Centre Award from The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies,

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, for his contributions to the advancement and education of issues around sexual identification. In 2020, Deepa Mehta released the film '' Funny Boy'', an adaptation of Selvadurai's novel. At the

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in 2021, Mehta and Selvadurai won the award for

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Personal life

He currently lives in

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with his partner Andrew Champion. In 2016, a species of spider was named after Selvadurai called ''Brignolia Shyami'', a small goblin spider which is a pale yellow colour and between 1.4mm and 1.5mm in length.

Bibliography

*'' Funny Boy''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994. (and others).

for Best Gay Male Novel, and Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award for 1994 *''Cinnamon Gardens''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1998. *''Swimming in the Monsoon Sea''. Toronto: Tundra, 2005. Lambda Literary Award in the Children's and Youth Literature category in 2006 *''Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. (editor) *''Swimming in the Monsoon Sea''. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2005. *''The Hungry Ghosts''. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2013. *''Many Roads Through Paradise: An Anthology Of Sri Lankan Literature''. London: Penguin Books Limited, 2014. (compiler and translator) *''Mansions of the Moon''. 2022."66 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2022"

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, January 11, 2022.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Selvadurai, Shyam 1965 births Canadian male novelists Canadian gay writers Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature winners Living people Writers from Toronto People from Colombo Canadian people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent Sri Lankan emigrants to Canada Sri Lankan novelists Canadian writers of Asian descent Sri Lankan LGBT people Sri Lankan Tamil writers Sinhalese writers Canadian LGBT novelists Applicants for refugee status in Canada Kala Keerthi 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian children's writers Sri Lankan children's writers Best Screenplay Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners LGBT screenwriters Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners