Toronto Reference Library Blog

Join us on Thursday, September 22, at 7pm, in Beeton Hall at the Toronto Reference Library, to hear M.G. Vassanji in conversation with Deborah Dundas from The Toronto Star. He is the second of Toronto Reference Library's authors participating in the fall eh List Author Series, Toronto Public Library’s celebration of writers from across Canada. One of Canada’s most celebrated and critically acclaimed authors, M.G. Vassanji has written many essays, and given lectures worldwide.

His first novel, The Gunny Sack, won a regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and he is a two-time Giller-prize winner for The Book of Secrets, which won'the inaugural prize in 1994, and The In- Between World of Vikram Lall, which won in 2003.

                                                                                                                 

Vassanji’s other novels are: No New Land, Amriika, The Assassin’s Song (short-listed for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Prize, the Writers Trust Award, and India's Crossword Prize), The Magic of Saida, and his latest book, Nostalgia.

Vassanji is also the author of two short-story collections, Uhuru Street and When She Was Queen, and two memoirs: And Home was Kariakoo and A Place Within: Rediscovering India, the latter of which won a Governor General’s prize for nonfiction.

 

Vassanji's work has been translated into Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Swahili. He has been awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize and the Bressani Prize, and in June 2015, the Canada Council Molson Prize for the Arts. He has several honorary doctorates, and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2005.

Vassanji's Background

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, and raised in Tanzania, Vassanji has a B.S. from M.I.T. and a PhD from the University of Pennysylvania. Specializing in nuclear physics, he moved to Canada in 1978 as a postdoctoral fellow. He was a research associate at UofT in the 1980’s, during which time he co-founded and edited a literary magazine, The Toronto South Asian Review, later renamed The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad. He was a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, India in 1996, and often visits East Africa and India. He lives in Toronto.

With thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of the eh List Author Series, as well as our media partner, The Toronto Star, and Book City for bringing copies of M.G. Vassanji's books for purchase and signing.

Upcoming authors at Toronto Reference Library this Fall

Join us back in Beeton Hall on November 10 to hear Noah Richler.

You can find out more about the fall eh List Author Series on our What's On blog, or follow the conversation online using the hashtag: #ehList.