Michael Ondaatje, the best-selling and award-winning author of such books as The English Patient and Divisadero, read excerpts from his vast body of work to the Hamilton Community as part of the Tolles Lecture Series on April 9. The reading was sponsored by the Dean of Faculty Office.
Ondaatje began his reading with a brief introduction about his life. Having been born and raised in Sri Lanka, he moved to England at the age of 11 to attending school and then eventually moved to Canada. As a result being uprooted from his homeland, many of Ondaatje's poems and stories are linked to his memories of life there and the family he longs to remember. Poems such as "The Great Tree" and "The Photograph" are laced with vivid imagery that captures the natural beauty of Sri Lanka. He also read from one of his books, Running the Family, a novel in which he looks back on his parents' and grandparents' ancestral ties to Sri Lanka.
Ondaatje also read excerpts from The English Patient and Anil's Ghost, pieces of literature that focus on the motifs of historical tensions and human desires.
Ondaatje is the recipient of the Booker Prize, Canada's Governor General's Award, the Prix-Medicis, and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. His work spans poetry, fiction, criticism and films. He now lives in Toronto with his wife Lisa Spaulding and teaches at York University.
Ondaatje began his reading with a brief introduction about his life. Having been born and raised in Sri Lanka, he moved to England at the age of 11 to attending school and then eventually moved to Canada. As a result being uprooted from his homeland, many of Ondaatje's poems and stories are linked to his memories of life there and the family he longs to remember. Poems such as "The Great Tree" and "The Photograph" are laced with vivid imagery that captures the natural beauty of Sri Lanka. He also read from one of his books, Running the Family, a novel in which he looks back on his parents' and grandparents' ancestral ties to Sri Lanka.
Ondaatje also read excerpts from The English Patient and Anil's Ghost, pieces of literature that focus on the motifs of historical tensions and human desires.
Ondaatje is the recipient of the Booker Prize, Canada's Governor General's Award, the Prix-Medicis, and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. His work spans poetry, fiction, criticism and films. He now lives in Toronto with his wife Lisa Spaulding and teaches at York University.
