Photo: Jeff Nolte

Michael Ondaatje was born 12 September 1943 in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). He moved to England in 1954 and Canada in 1962. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and an M.A. from Queen's University and currently teaches at Glendon College. In addition to his books and poetry, Ondaatje has created three films. He is married to writer Linda Spalding and together they edit Brick, A Literary Journal.

Books by Michael Ondaatje

	1969 The Man with Seven Toes
	1970 The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
	1970 Leonard Cohen
	1973 Rat Jelly
	1976 Coming Through Slaughter
	1978 Elimination Dance
	1979 There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1973-1978
	1980 Rat Jelly and Other Poems, 1963-78
	1982 Running in the Family
	1984 Secular Love
	1987 In the Skin of a Lion Patrick Lewis travels to Toronto in the 1920s where he becomes involved with the immigrants who are building the city.
	1989 The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems
	1992 The English Patient
	1992 The Dainty Monsters
	1998 Handwriting
	2000 Anil's Ghost Forensic anthropologist Anil Tissera returns to her native Sri Lanka to investigate possible political murders.
	2002 The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
	2006 The Story
	2007 Divisadero
	2011 The Cat's Table
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Awards

• Books in Canada First Novel Award
  • 1976 – Coming Through Slaughter – Co-winner

• Canada Reads
  • 2002 – In The Skin of a Lion – Winner

• Giller Prize
  • 2000 – Anil's Ghost – Co-winner
  • 2011 – The Cat's Table – Shortlisted

• Governor General's Literary Award: Fiction
  • 1987 – In the Skin of a Lion – Shortlisted
  • 1992 – The English Patient - Winner
  • 2000 – Anil's Ghost – Winner
  • 2007 – Divisadero – Winner

• Governor General's Literary Award: Poetry
  • 1970 – The Collected Works of Billy the Kid – Co-winner
  • 1979 – There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do – Winner
  • 1998 – Handwriting – Shortlisted

• Order of Canada
  • 1988 – Officer

Comments

Added 15 November 2005.
Updated 07 January 2012.