Dr. Vassanji

Dr. Vassanji, Thanks so much for agreeing to speak with us on CFRU 93.3 in Guelph. I know, as well, that the community appreciates and anticipates your participation as Literary guest at the Guelph Lecture – On Being Canadian!. On Friday November 9 at the River Run Centre, I understand that you will read from the Assassin’s Song.

Have you selected/how hard has it been choosing what you will read?

The Assasin’s song is largely set in India, but I read on the internet that you have never been. Is that so?

You have a fascinating background of Indianness, transformed by Africanness, and have lived in the US and since 1978 in Canada.. Much of your work involves characters in an in-between societies predicament, and the Canadian immigrant experience -- characters who are trying to reconcile different worlds within themselves. .So I wonder, what do you value about Canadian Society?

What sacrifices have you made in live in Canada?

Much of your work shows immigrant families undergoing a consumer-centered re-birth, and sometimes how pressures to blend into the mainstream results in a loss of tradition and culture. What can you tell me about concerns you have about what you see in our society?

It is often said that Canada is a country without a unified or common national identity, but clearly we are a country with complex cross-cultural strands of competing identities and cultural experiences. So, I want to ask, what does it mean to you, to be Canadian?

In 2005 you were made a member of the Order of Canada. What has that meant to you?

Many believe we are at an important juncture in human history, a cusp of critical change, given global politics, developments in technology, and the state of the environment. Are there any steps that you as an individual take to ensure that we emerge from this time of change in better shape?

The Assasin’s Song examines and exposes conflicts between the spiritual and the intellectual and also conflicts between different generations. So, thinking of the future, what role do you think Canada or Canadians could/should play in the changing world?

What can you tell us about your process as a writer?
What can you tell us about your experiences as an editor?What do you miss about working in the world of nuclear physics?
What work are you the most proud of and why?

As I understand it, you made literary history as the first-ever author to win two Giller prizes for excellence in English-language Canadian fiction. Since The Assasin’s Song is up for the prize this year, I wish you luck in becoming the first-ever author to win the prize three times.