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The Friends of the McGill Library present the annual Hugh MacLennan Memorial Lecture featuring award-winning author

Michael Ondaatje

Lecture topic: Mongrel art: A discussion of literature and its neighbours

Michael Ondaatje is one of the world’s foremost writers. He is best known as a novelist, most notably for The English Patient, which was made into an Academy Award-winning film, but his work also encompasses poetry, memoir, literary criticism, and film.

He has published 13 books of poetry including The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems (1970), The Cinnamon Peeler (1989), Handwriting (1998) and The Story (2006).  He is the author of the semi-autobiographical Running in the Family (1982), which combines memoir, fiction, and photography. He has also written six novels: Coming Through Slaughter (1976), In the Skin of the Lion (1987), The English Patient (1992), Anil's Ghost (2000), Divisadero (2007), and Cat's Table (2011).

Michael Ondaatje has garnered several literary prizes including: The Booker Prize for Fiction, The Irish Times International Prize for Fiction, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, the Prix Medicis, the Governor-General’s Award (five times), and the Giller Prize.

A selection of Ondaatje's books will be on sale and Mr. Ondaatje will be on hand to sign books from 6:30-7:00pm.

This lecture is sponsored by Donald Walcot.