Michael Ondaatje

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Biography

Michael Ondaatje was born in what was then Ceylon in 1943. He moved to England in 1954 and then to Canada in 1962. He took his B.A. at the University of Toronto and taught at the University of Western Ontario before moving to York University, Toronto. He published several books of poetry before writing his first novel, Coming Through Slaughter. His work is very unCanadian, in that it relies heavily on a poetic approach, unusual settings, abrupt shifts and a cast of characters that owe more to myth and legend than to a conventional Canadian background. His greatest success came with The English Patient, which was made into an Oscar-winning film.

Books about Michael Ondaatje

Douglas Barbour: Michael Ondaatje
Nell Waldman: Michael Ondaatje and His Works

Bibliography

967 The Dainty Monsters (poetry)
1969 The Man With Seven Toes (poetry)
1970 The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems (poetry)
1970 Leonard Cohen (criticism)
1971 The Broken Ark: A Book of Beasts (drawings by Tony Urquhart)
1973 Rat Jelly (poetry)
1976 Coming Through Slaughter (novel)
1978 Elimination Dance (poetry)
1979 Claude Glass (criticism)
1979 There’s a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do : Poems 1963-1978 (UK: Rat Jelly and Other Poems: 1963-78) (poetry)
1979 Long Poem Anthology (poetry)
1982 Tin Roof (poetry)
1982 Running in the Family (memoirs)
1984 Secular Love (poetry)
1986 All along the Mazinaw: Two Poems (poetry)
1986 Two Poems, Woodland Pattern (poetry)
1987 In the Skin of a Lion (novel)
1991 The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems (poetry)
1992 The English Patient (novel)
1998 Handwriting: Poems (poetry)
2000 Anil’s Ghost (novel)
2004 Vintage Ondaatje
2006 The Story (poetry)
2007 Divisadero (novel)
2011 The Cat’s Table (novel)
2018 Warlight (novel)
2024 Who’s Afraid of Gender?
2024 A Year of Last Things (poetry)

The Modern Novel

The world-wide literary novel from early 20th Century onwards