M.G. Vassanji's guest appearances

M.G. Vassanji

The Biblio File: Hosted by Nigel Beale

The Biblio File hosted by Nigel Beale

SpiceRadioVan

Writers Festival Radio

Jael Richardson

Amitav Ghosh

Edward Rutherfurd

Alexander Macleod

Elaine Dewar

Lennie Goodings

Nicholson Baker

David Eagleman

Tom Doherty

Arkady Martine

Harlan Coben

Cory Doctorow

Patrick Brown

Yann Martel

Salman Rushdie

OwlTail

Don’t miss this conversation between Peter Schneider, Manager and Executive Secretary of the Public Lending Right Program, and M.G. Vassanji, two-time Giller Prize winner and winner of the Governor General's Literary Award. Vassanji’s latest collection of short fiction, What You Are, explores the tensions between remembering past homes and belonging in new ones. Weaving between wistful memories of youthful ambition and the compromises and comforts of age, travelling between the streets of Dar es Salaam and Toronto, the characters in these stories must negotiate distance--between here and there; between lives imagined and lives lived; between expectation and disappointment; between inclusion and exclusion. Throughout, Vassanji engages passionately with the intellectual and political questions that inspire him as a writer and a citizen, while always matching the energy of his ideas with the empathy and emotional depth he invests in his characters. As with all Vassanji's finest work, What You Are stands as a model of artistic integrity and clarity of vision.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.Presented in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library.

Don’t miss this conversation between Peter Schneider, Manager and Executive Secretary of the Public Lending Right Program, and M.G. Vassanji, two-time Giller Prize winner and winner of the Governor General's Literary Award. Vassanji’s latest collection of short fiction, What You Are, explores the tensions between remembering past homes and belonging in new ones. Weaving between wistful memories of youthful ambition and the compromises and comforts of age, travelling between the streets of Dar es Salaam and Toronto, the characters in these stories must negotiate distance--between here and there; between lives imagined and lives lived; between expectation and disappointment; between inclusion and exclusion. Throughout, Vassanji engages passionately with the intellectual and political questions that inspire him as a writer and a citizen, while always matching the energy of his ideas with the empathy and emotional depth he invests in his characters. As with all Vassanji's finest work, What You Are stands as a model of artistic integrity and clarity of vision. Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives. Presented in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library.

What You Are with M.G. Vassanji

Canadian novelist talks about his new book A Delhi Obsession.

M.G. Vassanji Nov 7

Mordecai Richler

M. G. Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. Before coming to Canada in 1978, he attended MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in theoretical nuclear physics. From 1978-1980 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and from 1980 to 1989 he was a research associate at the University of Toronto. During this period he developed a keen interest in medieval Indian literature and history, co-founded and edited a literary magazine (The Toronto South Asian Review, later renamed The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad), and began writing stories and a novel. In 1989, with the publication of his first novel, The Gunny Sack, he was invited to spend a season at the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa. That year ended his active career in nuclear physics. Vassanji is the author of six novels and two collections of short stories. He has won the Giller Prize, twice; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa); the Bressani Prize and the Order of Canada.   We met at the Blue Met Writers Festival in Montreal to talk about his most brief biography of Mordecai Richler for Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series.The discussion touches on Richler’s outsider status, his struggle with and acceptance of Jewishness, making one person’s story everyone’s story, cities, streets and communities, mothers and fathers, growing out of groups, humble origins, irony, great novels versus journalism, and honesty.

M. G. Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. Before coming to Canada in 1978, he attended MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in theoretical nuclear physics. From 1978-1980 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and from 1980 to 1989 he was a research associate at the University of Toronto. During this period he developed a keen interest in medieval Indian literature and history, co-founded and edited a literary magazine (The Toronto South Asian Review, later renamed The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad), and began writing stories and a novel. In 1989, with the publication of his first novel, The Gunny Sack, he was invited to spend a season at the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa. That year ended his active career in nuclear physics. Vassanji is the author of six novels and two collections of short stories. He has won the Giller Prize, twice; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa); the Bressani Prize and the Order of Canada.   We met at the Blue Met Writers Festival in Montreal to talk about his most brief biography of <a href="http://www.extraordinarycanadians.com/subjects/richler.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mordecai Richler for Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series.</a>The discussion touches on Richler’s outsider status, his struggle with and acceptance of Jewishness, making one person’s story everyone’s story, cities, streets and communities, mothers and fathers, growing out of groups, humble origins, irony, great novels versus journalism, and honesty.

M.G. Vassanji on Mordecai Richler