Achievements In 1966, he received the prestigious ‘E. J. Pratt Medal’ and the ‘Epstein Award’. In 1967, he was awarded the President's Medal by the ‘University of Western Ontario’. In 1971, he won the ‘Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction’ (Canada) for his poem ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid’.In 1980, he was presented with the ‘Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction’ (Canada) for his poetry collection ‘There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do’. In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC). In 1992, he was awarded the distinguished ‘Booker Prize for Fiction’ for his acclaimed novel ‘The English Patient’. The same year, he also received the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada) for the aforementioned novel. The English Patient, was made into a motion picture four years later that won an array of industry awards. The screen version of The English Patient was adapted from the novel by director Anthony Minghella and won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1996. In 2000, he won the ‘Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize’, ‘Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction’ (Canada), and the ‘Giller Prize’ (Canada) for his novel ‘Anil's Ghost’.In addition to his literary writing, Ondaatje has been an important force in "fostering new Canadian writing" with two decades commitment to Coach House Press (around 1970-90), and his editorial credits on Canadian literary projects like the journal Brick, and the Long Poem Anthology (1979), among others.On 11 July 1988, Ondaatje was made an Officer of the Order of Canada which was later upgraded to grade of companion in 2016, the highest level of the order. In 2005, he was honoured with Sri Lanka Ratna by the former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Sri Lanka Ratna is the highest honour given by the Government of Sri Lanka for foreign nationals.
Connections Father: Mervyn Ondaatje Mother: Doris Gratiaen Wife: Linda Spalding Brother: Gillian Ondaatje Brother: Christopher Ondaatje
References Michael Ondaatje (Twayne's World Authors Series) Vintage Ondaatje Michael Ondaatje's "In the Skin of a Lion" and Multiculturalism: The Rewritten History of an Immigrant Experience Michael Ondaatje: Haptic Aesthetics and Micropolitical Writing Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (Paperback) Michael Ondaatje POET autograph, In-Person signed card Michael Ondaatje (Contemporary World Writers MUP) Michael Ondaatje: Express Yourself Beautifully Divisadero Hardcover by Ondaatje, Michael