Philip Michael Ondaatje (born September 12, 1943) is a Canadian poet, fiction writer, and essayist who was born in Ceylon.

Ondaatje began his literary career by writing poetry. In 1967, he published The Dainty Monsters, and in 1970, he released The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, which was highly praised by critics. His novel The English Patient (1992) was made into a film in 1996. It won the Booker Prize in 1992 and later received the Golden Man Booker Prize as the best book among the first 51 Booker Prize winners.

Ondaatje helped support new Canadian writing by working with Coach House Press for about 20 years, from around 1970 to 1990. During this time, he edited works by other authors, including early poems by Daphne Marrlatt. He also worked on the journal Brick and the Long Poem Anthology (1979), among other projects.

Early life and education

Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka), in 1943. His parents were Major Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen, who had Tamil and Burgher (Dutch and Sinhalese) heritage. His parents later divorced. In 1954, he moved to live with his mother in England, where he attended Dulwich College.

In 1962, he moved to Montreal, Quebec, and studied at Bishop's College School and Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, for three years. He later attended the University of Toronto, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. He then received a Master of Arts degree from Queen's University in Kingston.

The poet D. G. Jones recognized Ondaatje's talent for writing poetry.

Ondaatje began teaching English at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. In 1971, he taught English literature at Glendon College, York University.

Work

Michael Ondaatje has written 13 books of poetry. He 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 1963–1978 (1979). His novel Anil's Ghost (2000) won the 2000 Giller Prize, the Prix Médicis, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the 2001 Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and Canada's Governor General's Award.

The novel 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 received the Academy Award for Best Picture and many other awards.

The novel In the Skin of a Lion (1987), which tells the story of early immigrants in Toronto, won the 1988 City of Toronto Book Award. It was also a finalist for the 1987 Ritz Paris Hemingway Award for best novel of the year in English and won the first Canada Reads competition in 2002. The novel Coming Through Slaughter (1976), set in New Orleans, Louisiana, around 1900, is loosely based on the lives of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and photographer E. J. Bellocq. It won 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.

In 2018, his novel Warlight was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Adaptations

The books The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Coming Through Slaughter, and Divisadero have been changed into plays and shown in theaters across North America and Europe. In addition to the play based on The English Patient, Ondaatje’s films include a documentary about poet B.P. Nichol titled Sons of Captain Poetry and a film called The Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show, which tells the story of a group working together on a play in 1971 led by Paul Thompson of Theatre Passe Muraille.

In 2002, Ondaatje wrote a non-fiction book titled The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film. This book received special recognition at the 2003 American Cinema Editors Awards and won the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for the best book of the year about film.

Honours

In 1988, Ondaatje was named an Officer in the Order of Canada. This title was later promoted to the rank of Companion in 2016, the highest level of the order. Two years later, in 2018, he became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2005, he received the Sri Lanka Ratna, the highest honor given to foreign nationals by the Government of Sri Lanka.

In 2008, he was awarded the Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement. In 2012, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

In 2016, a new species of spider, Brignolia ondaatjei, discovered in Sri Lanka, was named in his honor.

Public stand

In April 2015, Ondaatje was one of many members of PEN American Center who left their roles as literary hosts after the organization gave its annual Freedom of Expression Courage award to Charlie Hebdo. This award followed a shooting attack on the magazine’s offices in Paris in January 2015. Ondaatje and 60 other writers sent a letter to PEN American Center, stating they were worried the award supported "material that some people find offensive" and could worsen existing negative attitudes toward Islam, North Africa, and Arab cultures in the Western world.

Personal life

Since the 1960s, Michael Ondaatje has worked as a poetry editor for Coach House Books in Toronto. He and his wife, Linda Spalding, who is a novelist and teacher, co-edit a literary journal called Brick with Michael Redhill, Michael Helm, and Esta Spalding. From 2000 to 2018, Ondaatje was a founding member of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. He also created the Gratiaen Trust in Sri Lanka, which gives the Gratiaen Prize every year.

Ondaatje has two children from his first marriage to Kim Ondaatje, a Canadian artist. His brother, Sir Christopher Ondaatje, helps others, runs businesses, and writes books. Ondaatje’s nephew, David Ondaatje, is a film director and screenwriter who made the 2009 movie The Lodger.

Books

• 1976: Coming Through Slaughter (see "Other" section, 1980), published by Anansi in Toronto, ISBN 0-393-08765-4; published by W. W. Norton in New York, 1977
• 1987: In the Skin of a Lion, published by Knopf in New York, ISBN 0-394-56363-8 and ISBN 0-14-011309-6
• 1992: The English Patient, published by Knopf in New York, ISBN 0-679-41678-1 and ISBN 0-679-74520-3
• 2000: Anil's Ghost, published by Knopf in New York, ISBN 0-375-41053-8
• 2007: Divisadero, ISBN 0-307-26635-4 and ISBN 9780307266354
• 2011: The Cat's Table, ISBN 978-0-7710-6864-5 and ISBN 0-7710-6864-6
• 2018: Warlight, ISBN 077107378X and ISBN 978-0771073786

• 1962: Social Call, The Love Story, In Search of Happiness, all featured in The Mitre: Lennoxville: Bishop University Press
• 1967: The Dainty Monsters, published by Coach House Press in Toronto
• 1969: The Man with Seven Toes, published by Coach House Press in Toronto
• 1970: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems (see "Other" section, 1973), published by Anansi in Toronto, ISBN 0-88784-018-3; published by Berkeley in New York, 1975
• 1973: Rat Jelly, published by Coach House Press in Toronto
• 1978: Elimination Dance/La danse eliminatoire, published by Nairn Coldstream in Ilderton; revised edition published by Brick in 1980
• 1979: There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems, 1963–1978, published by W. W. Norton in New York, ISBN 0-393-01191-7 and ISBN 0-393-01200-X; published as Rat Jelly, and Other Poems, 1963–1978, by Marion Boyars in London, United Kingdom, 1980
• 1984: Secular Love, published by Coach House Press in Toronto, ISBN 0-88910-288-0 and ISBN 0-393-01991-8; published by W. W. Norton in New York, 1985
• 1986: All along the Mazinaw: Two Poems (broadside), published by Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• 1986: Two Poems, published by Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• 1989: The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems, published by Pan in London, United Kingdom and Knopf in New York, 1991
• 1998: Handwriting, published by McClelland & Stewart in Toronto and Knopf in New York, 1999, ISBN 0-375-40559-3
• 2006: The Story, published by House of