Ransom Center Magazine

archive

New digital resources launch online for study of human rights

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Thousands of digitized records reflecting major historical events of the 20th century related to PEN International, a global writers’ organization, are available online beginning this month. [Read more…] about New digital resources launch online for study of human rights

A nomad’s writing finds a home

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Q&A with Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje began his career as a poet but is best known as the author of the 1992 Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient, which was made into a critically-acclaimed motion picture. He was born in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1943; he moved to Canada at age 18. [Read more…] about A nomad’s writing finds a home

Archive of Michael Ondaatje, author of “The English Patient,” acquired

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The archive of award-winning author Michael Ondaatje has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center. Ondaatje, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel “The English Patient,” is widely regarded as one of the finest English-language novelists writing today. [Read more…] about Archive of Michael Ondaatje, author of “The English Patient,” acquired

The computer poetry of J. M. Coetzee’s early programming career

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Writer J. M. Coetzee’s early poetry is almost undecipherable. That’s because it was written in computer code.

Coetzee’s global reputation rests on his literary output, for which he received a Nobel Prize in 2003. Before he embarked on a career as a scholar and writer, the South African–born writer was a computer programmer in the early years of the industry’s development (1962–1965). I believe that this experience, while short, was vital for the development of Coetzee’s writerly project. While visiting the Ransom Center on a research fellowship, I examined Coetzee’s papers, which offer tantalizing clues about his neglected “other career.” [Read more…] about The computer poetry of J. M. Coetzee’s early programming career