Neil Bissoondath

Neil Devindra Bissoondath (born April 19, 1955 in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Canadian author who lives in Ste-Foy, Quebec. He is a noted writer of fiction, and also an outspoken critic of Canada's system of multiculturalism. He is the nephew of authors V.S. Naipaul and Shiva Naipaul.

Biography

Bissoondath attended St. Mary's College in Trinidad and Tobago. Although he was from a Hindu tradition, he was able to adapt to a Catholic high school. Bissoondath describes himself as not very religious and distrustful of dogma. In the early Seventies, political upheaval and economic collapse had created a climate of chaos and violence in the island nation. In 1973, at the age of eighteen, Bissoondath left Trinidad and settled in Ontario, where he studied at York University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in French in 1977. He then taught English and French at the Inlingua School of Languages and the Toronto Language Workshop. He won the McClelland and Stewart award and the National Magazine award, both in 1986, for the short story "Dancing." In 2010 he was made a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec. [1]

Bibliography

NOVELS

• A Casual Brutality (ISBN 9781896951409) - 1989
• The Innocence of Age - 1993
• The Worlds Within Her (ISBN 9781896951874) - 1999 (Nominated for a Governor General's Award)
• Doing the Heart Good (ISBN 9781896951645) - 2002
• The Unyielding Clamour of the Night (ISBN 9781896951874) - 2005
• The Soul of All Great Designs (ISBN 9781897151327) - 2008

NOVELLA

• Postcards from Hell - 2009

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

• Digging Up Mountains - 1987
• On the Eve of Uncertain Tomorrows - 1991

NON FICTION

• Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada 1994

External links

• Neil Bissoondath's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia