Shyam Selvadurai facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Shyam Selvadurai
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| Born | February 12, 1965 Colombo, Western Province, Dominion of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan-Canadian |
| Period | 1990s-present |
| Notable works | Funny Boy, Swimming in the Monsoon Sea |
| Spouse | Andrew Champion |
Shyam Selvadurai, born on February 12, 1965, is a writer from Sri Lanka who also lives in Canada. He is famous for his book Funny Boy, which came out in 1994. This book won important awards like the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award for stories about different kinds of love.
Contents
About Shyam Selvadurai
Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His mother was from the Sinhalese group, and his father was from the Tamil group. These two groups sometimes had conflicts in Sri Lanka, and these issues often appear in his books.
When Shyam was 19, in 1983, his family moved to Canada because of ethnic troubles in Sri Lanka. He studied Theatre at York University and later earned a master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. In 2003, he wrote an essay called "Coming Out" for Time Asia. In this essay, he shared some personal experiences about visiting Sri Lanka with his partner in 1997.
Shyam Selvadurai's Books and Career
Shyam Selvadurai published his first novel, Funny Boy, in 1994. This book quickly became very popular. Four years later, in 1998, he released another novel called Cinnamon Gardens.
Collections and Young Adult Novels
In 2004, Shyam Selvadurai put together a collection of short stories called Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers. This book included works by famous writers like Salman Rushdie.
He also wrote a novel for young adults, Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, which was published in 2005. This book won the Lambda Literary Award in 2006 for Children's and Youth Literature. He also contributed to a book called TOK: Writing the New Toronto, Book 1.
Later Works and Recognition
In 2013, Shyam Selvadurai released his fourth novel, The Hungry Ghosts (novel). His book Funny Boy was added to the English literature courses at The American College in Madurai in 2013.
In 2014, he received the Bonham Centre Award from the University of Toronto. This award recognized his important work in helping people understand more about different identities and diversity.
Film Adaptations
In 2020, the director Deepa Mehta made a film based on Selvadurai's novel Funny Boy. At the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, Deepa Mehta and Shyam Selvadurai won an award for writing the best adapted screenplay for the film.
In 2022, he released Mansions of the Moon. This historical novel tells a story about Yasodhara, who was the wife of the Buddha.
Shyam Selvadurai's Personal Life
Shyam Selvadurai lives in Toronto, Canada, with his partner, Andrew Champion.
In 2016, scientists named a new species of spider after him! The spider is called Brignolia Shyami. It is a tiny, pale yellow goblin spider, only about 1.4 to 1.5 millimeters long.
Books by Shyam Selvadurai
- Funny Boy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994. ISBN: 0-7710-7950-8
- Cinnamon Gardens. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1998. ISBN: 0-7868-6473-7
- Swimming in the Monsoon Sea. Toronto: Tundra, 2005. ISBN: 0-88776-735-4
- Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. ISBN: 0-618-57680-0 (editor)
- The Hungry Ghosts (novel). Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2013. ISBN: 0-3856-7066-4
- Many Roads Through Paradise: An Anthology Of Sri Lankan Literature. London: Penguin Books Limited, 2014. ISBN: 0-1434-2303-7 (compiler and translator)
- Mansions of the Moon. 2022.
See also
In Spanish: Shyam Selvadurai para niños
