Neil Devindra Bissoondath (born April 19, 1955 in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian-Canadian author who lives in Quebec city, Quebec, Canada. 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.
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".
Bissoondath has received honorary doctorates from York University[1] and l’Université de Moncton.[2] In 2010 he was made a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec.[3] In 2012 he was awarded the NALIS (National Library of Trinidad and Tobago) Lifetime Literary Achievement Award.[4]
