The Distance of a Shout
with Michael Ondaatje
Hosted by Elizabeth Hay
Ondaatje presents a superb and comprehensive collection of selected works, or 'condensary of time,' that crystallizes for devotees and new readers alike the poet’s lifelong devotion to place... Readers will revel in this astonishing volume.
Join us for a conversation between Michael Ondaatje and Elizabeth Hay in celebration of In The Distance of a Shout, a one-of-a-kind collection gathering fifty years of poetry by one of our most cherished authors.
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, the close ties of children. We follow him through the exhilarations of youth and into that “storm of music,” the passionate swerves of longing and desire, until we reach the calm of that moment when, with “only a cloud’s reflection holding you up, You swim into late afternoon.”

Signed copies will be 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.
