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MICHAEL ONDAATJE (B. 1943) Born in Sri Lanka, Michael Ondaatje migrated to Canada (via England) where he established a career as a writer. He has written both poetry and fiction, although his work is characterized by its formally innovative style, and persistently challenges the generic boundaries of each. In books such as The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: left handed poems (1981) he combines creative writing, photographs, extracts from historical documents and other materials, in order to tell the story of Billy the Kid through a creative literary style – between and beyond fiction and poetry – which emphasizes melange, hybridity and collage. His novels In the Skin of a Lion (1987) and The English Patient (1992) also subvert linear narrative forms, in favour of a lyrical literary style which constellates a variety of different scenes and moments more redolent of poetry. For some, Ondaatje’s frequently elegant and poignant literary voice reflects his life as a migrant and his experiences of itinerancy, displacement and dislocation. The focus of his work shifts restlessly back and forth across the history of Canada, war in Europe (notably in The English Patient) and the Sri Lanka of his birth – the latter is explored in his memoir Running in the Family (1983) and his novel Anil’s Ghost (2000). Ondaatje has also done much to stimulate Canadian literary culture, chiefly through his editorial work for Brick, a journal of new writing.