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Among the many international honours from Michael Ondaatje’s long and storied career: he is the only winner in history of the Golden Man Booker, awarded to the best work of fiction from the first five decades of the prize, for The English Patient. His other renowned books include Anil’s Ghost, In the Skin of a Lion, The Cinnamon Peeler, and Warlight. Now, he joins the Vancouver Writers Fest with a magnificent new collection that gathers some of his finest poems from the past fifty years.
In The Distance of a Shout, Michael Ondaatje navigates his own past, beginning with memories of his childhood in Sri Lanka and his eccentric family, to his life in rural southern Ontario with its beloved rivers, celebrations of treasured friends, the close ties of children. Here is a singular poetic memoir that invokes the arc of an astonishing journey, and offers us a glimpse into the interwoven life and art of one of our most cherished poets and novelists.
Ondaatje will speak with a fellow icon of Canadian letters: Madeleine Thien, the author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing. Get a head start on enjoying National Poetry Month, at this intimate evening of readings and conversation. Books will be for sale at the event from Book Warehouse, a division of Black Bond Books.
We do our best to make our events low-barrier, accessible experiences for our community. A limited number of accessibly priced tickets are available for purchase. To discuss other ways we can make these events more accessible to you, please reach out to us at boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca or 604-681-6330.
About Books & Ideas
Launched in January 2025, Books & Ideas is an event series from the Vancouver Writers Fest, bringing literary talent and thought-provoking conversations to Granville Island—home of the Writers Fest’s celebrated annual literary festival—from January to June. With an intimate theatre venue and a pop-up bar for socializing, attendees are invited to connect more deeply with other members of the local literary community, and meet the esteemed authors who grace the stage, in a modern space for exchanging ideas.
Participants and Speakers
Michael Ondaatje
MICHAEL ONDAATJE is the author of seven novels, including Coming Through Slaughter, The Cat’s Table, and Warlight; a memoir, Running in the Family; a nonfiction book on film-editing, The Conversations; and several books of poetry, including A Year of Last Things, The Cinnamon Peeler, and Handwriting. Among the international accolades, for all his work, The English Patient received the Booker Prize in 1992 and was made into a film by Anthony Minghella. Born in Sri Lanka, Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto.
Madeleine Thien
MADELEINE THIEN was born in Vancouver and lives in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of five books, including Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the Folio Prize, and won the 2016 Governor-General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Book of Records, was named a book of the year by The New Yorker, The Guardian, Time, and The New York Public Library, and longlisted for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and The 2026 Climate Fiction Prize. Madeleine’s novels have been translated into twenty-seven languages, and her writing can be found in The New Yorker, Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. She teaches in the MFA Program at Brooklyn College and in the Granta Writers’ Workshop.