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7 unusual facts about Michael Ondaatje


Arthur Goss

Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje relied on Goss′s photograph when researching his novel In the Skin of a Lion about the immigrant and working class experience in early 20th Century Toronto.

Autobiography of Red

It boasts one of the more impressive roster of blurbs you are ever likely to see: full-on gushing from Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Susan Sontag.

But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz

Like Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter, But Beautiful takes a fictionalised look at jazz.

House of Anansi Press

It quickly gained attention for publishing significant authors such as Margaret Atwood, Matt Cohen, Michael Ondaatje, Marian Engel, Erin Mouré, Paulette Jiles, George Grant and Northrop Frye.

Kate McGarrigle

Among the participating artists honoring her at these concerts were Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Antony Hegarty, Jimmy Fallon, Krystle Warren, Justin Vivian Bond, Teddy Thompson, Jenni Muldaur writer Michael Ondaatje and longtime friends and McGarrigle sidemen Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin.

Linda Spalding

Linda Spalding is currently married to Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje; Linda, Esta and Michael are also on the editorial board of the national literary magazine, Brick.

Skootamatta River

The river is mentioned several times in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient as a place where Hana, one of the novel's main characters, once lived.


Arthur Motyer

Among his students there were the future novelist Michael Ondaatje and Scott Griffin, founder in 2000 of the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Coach House Books

It is known for publishing early works by writers such as Fred Wah, Daphne Marlatt, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Ann-Marie MacDonald, George Bowering, Nicole Brossard, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Christopher Dewdney, bpNichol and Anne Michaels, Darren O'Donnell, Sean Dixon, Greg MacArthur, Matthew Heiti and Amiel Gladstone.

Comparative literature

Current trends in Transnational studies also reflect the growing importance of post-colonial literary figures such as Giannina Braschi, J. M. Coetzee, Maryse Condé, Earl Lovelace, V. S. Naipaul, Michael Ondaatje, Wole Soyinka.

Random House of Canada

They have published work by some of the country's most distinguished and notable authors, including Margaret Atwood, Farley Mowat, Yann Martel, Mordecai Richler, Douglas Coupland, and Michael Ondaatje.

Roland Caldwell Harris

Harris is also featured (and misnamed as "Rowland") in the Michael Ondaatje novel In the Skin of a Lion, although the portrayal of him is fictitious.

Rosvall and Voutilainen

For instance, Michael Ondaatje's 1987 novel In the Skin of a Lion gives a fictionalized account of the murder of Rosvall and Voutilainen.


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