Ondaatje, (Philip) Michael (1943– )

Ceylon-born Canadian writer. His prose works are non-linear and are often set in historical backdrops, with emphasis on complex characters in multicultural and unorthodox situations. He won the 1992 Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient (filmed 1996) about four people in an abandoned villa in Italy at the end of World War II. In 2000 he published Anil's Ghost, which won Canada's Giller Prize.

Born in Colombo in what is now Sri Lanka, and educated in the UK, he emigrated to Canada in 1962. His first published poetry was The Dainty Monsters (1967). The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) and There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do (1979) both won the Governor-General's Award for poetry. His other novels are Coming Through Slaughter (1976), In the Skin of a Lion (1987), and Divisadero (2007), which won the Governor-General's Award for fiction. His memoirs Running in the Family were published in 1992.