Michael Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1943 in the midst of World War II. He moved with his mother, brother, and sister to England in 1952 before attending Bishop University in Quebec, Canada. He received his BA from the University of Toronto in 1965 and his MA from Queens University in 1967.
Ondaatje's best known work is The English Patient, which won the Booker Prize upon its publication in 1992 and was adapted into a film by Anthony Minghella that won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1997.
Ondaatje began his writing career by publishing poetry, first in 1967 with the book Dainty Monsters. Ondaatje's poetry became an important part of his writing style, allowing him to...
