Michael Ondaatje, poet, filmmaker, and editor, was born in Colombo, Ceylon （now Sri Lanka） in September 1943. He moved to England with his mother in 1954, and then relocated to Canada in 1962, receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and a masters degree from Queens University in Kingston. Originally a poet,Ondaatje s eventual career in fiction was boosted by the success of his book of poetry, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid （1970）, an account of the factual and fictional life of the famous outlaw, for which Ondaatje won a Governor General s award. He won the coveted award again in 1979 for a second book of poetry entitled Theres a Trick with a Knife Im Learning to Do.
In the 1980s, Ondaatje turned his attention to novels, publishing Running in the Family （ 1982 ） about his family s life in Ceylon, and In the Skin of the Lion （1987）, which is set in 1930s Toronto. Ondaatje is perhaps best known, however, for The English Patient （1992）, a novel set in World War II Italy.Ondaatje won a Booker Prize for the novel, and the 1996 film adaptation went on to win widespread critical acclaim and nine Academy Awards. Alongside his writing, Ondaatje has taught at York University in Toronto since 1971. He and his wife,Linda Spalding, make there home in Toronto, and together edit the literary journal Brick.
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