Contributing to Canada’s Literary Heritage Michael Ondaatje came to Canada from Ceylon (Sri lanka, 1972). Immigrating to Canada via England, 1962, Mr. Ondaatje, born, Colombo, 1943, graduated, first, University of Toronto, B.A., 1965, then Queen’s University, M.A., 1967. For over 30 years, Michael Ondaatje has indelibly contributed to Canada’s rich literary heritage as a respected poet, novelist, film maker, editor, anthologist, publisher, and teacher. An early book of poetry, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems, won the Governor General’s Award, 1970, and was adapted for the stage and produced at Stratford, Toronto, and New York. He won another Governor General’s Award, 1979, for his collected poetry, 1963-78, There’s a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do. As a novelist, he won a Trillium Award, 1987, for In the Skin of a Lion. The English Patient, 1992, which brought Michael Ondaatje considerable international fame, won a third Governor General’s Award, plus the prestigious Booker Prize, and still another Trillium Award. After it was turned into a film, The English Patient captured nine Academy Awards, 1997. His critical examination of Leonard Cohen’s poetry, 1968, was one of the early literary studies of this well-known Canadian poet. Michael Ondaatje’s teaching career began at York University where he still lectures at Glendon College. [Photo, courtesy The Toronto Star]

Straddling Two Cultures Hemamali Gunasinghe, before immigrating to Canada, 1970, with her husband, Siri (poet, well-known filmmaker, and scholar), and their family, was an instructor in English as a Second Language, University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, her native homeland. Settling, Victoria, B.C., Hemamali earned an M.A., Linguistics, and a Ph.D., Applied and Psycholinguistics, University of Victoria, and while raising daughter, Manjula, and son, Ravi, was a Sessional Lecturer in Applied and Psycholinguistics, Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria. Since 1992, Dr. Gunasinghe has taught full time in the Department of English, Camosun College, Victoria, B.C. Active in theatre, both in Sri Lanka and Canada, Hemamali has performed as an actor both on stage and in film. She has translated poetry and drama from English into Sinhala, and has directed stage drama, including Deirdre by W.B. Yeats, Blood Wedding by Frederico Garcia Lorca, and Twilight Crane by Gengi Kenoshita. She has translated several key publications from Sinhala into English and from English into Sinhala. These include An Anthology of Modern Sinhala Literature for the University of Michigan Press and Anthology of Modern Sinhala Prose for UNESCO. In 1999, Hemamali received from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Sri Lanka, the Literary Academy Award for translating The Cart, an anthology of short stories by Somaratne Balasooriya. (Her husband, a year earlier, received from the Government of Sri Lanka the Sinhala Film Award as one of Sri Lanka’s Ten Best Movie Directors of all time.) Dr. Hemamali Gunasinghe also founded Rasanjalee, an ethnocultural youth group showcasing Sri Lankan culture at such venues as the Commonwealth Games, Victoria Folk Fest, and Saanich All One Family Festival. At Camosun College, 1998, she staged, as viewed here, “Come Dance With Serendipity,” an evening of Sri Lankan dance, food, and music commemorating Sri Lanka’s 50 years of independence. Although Hemi, like most immigrants, straddles two heritages, she exudes that Victoria is a “warm” home to the entire Gunasinghe family. [Photo, courtesy Dr. Hemamali Gunasinghe]