Ottawa International Writers Festival: Michael Ondaatje Tickets On Sale Now

On March 3, Elizabeth Hay will sit down with Michael Ondaatje, the acclaimed author of seven novels — including The English Patient, 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 Collected Works of Billy the Kid, The Cinnamon Peeler, and Handwriting. Among many international accolades, Ondaatje won the Booker Prize in 1992, and The English Patient was adapted into a multi–Oscar–winning film.

Join us on March 3 to celebrate a one-of-a-kind collection that gathers fifty years of poetry from one of our most cherished authors.

In The Distance of a Shout, Michael Ondaatje has assembled some of his finest poems into a singular poetic memoir that invokes the arc of his own journey over fifty years. Through poems that grow out of his profound understanding of how we lose and find ourselves, 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, and the close ties of children.

The Distance of a Shout offers us a glimpse into the interwoven life and art of one of our most cherished poets and novelists—and is itself a reminder of the power of poetry to shine a light on living.

Buy your tickets here.