Shyam Selvadurai

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Shyam Selvadurai's first novel Funny Boy, won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the US. He is the author of Cinnamon Gardens and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, and the editor of an anthology, Story-wallah! A Celebration of South Asian Fiction. His books have been published in the US, the UK and India, and published in translation in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey and Israel. His third, The Hungry Ghosts, was published April 2, 2013 in Canada, India and Sri Lanka. Shyam co- wrote the screenplay of his first novel Funny Boy with the award-winning Deepa Mehta, who also directed the film. He won Best Adapted Screenplay for his work at the Canadian Screen Awards 2021 and the New York Cinema Independent Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is available for viewing on CBC Gem in Canada and on Netflix in the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Shyam’s new novel Mansion of the Moon, a historical novel about the Buddha’s wife, was published by Knopf in  May 2022. In 2016, Shyam had the interesting honour of having a spider named after him: Brignolia shyami, a small goblin spider.

His website is www.shyamselvadurai.com.