a. biographical information about author

Irani’s move here has led to literary success; hIrani’s move here has led to literary success; he is arguably one of Vancouver’s hottest young writers. At twenty-nine, he has already had one play produced professionally, has another one in the works, and his first novel, The Cripple and His Talismans (Raincoast Books, $29.95) has just been published. This impressive debut, a beautifully written modern-day fable about a man who loses an arm and goes on a quest to find it, is a book that is sure to garner Irani plenty of attention.He is arguably one of Vancouver’s hottest young writers. At twenty-nine, he has already had one play produced professionally, has another one in the works, and his first novel, The Cripple and His Talismans (Raincoast Books, $29.95) has just been published.

Growing up, he never considered himself a writer, though he says, “I come from a long line of storytellers, none of whom are writers, but it’s just that we used to get drunk on family occasions and spread vicious lies about the people who weren’t there. That’s the purest form of storytelling; you can’t get any better than that.”

He was more interested in soccer and cricket than literature and writing in high school, but after graduating, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.

He studied Creative Writing and Literature at Capilano College in North Vancouver for a year, and then enrolled in UBC’s Creative Writing department, a prestigious writing workshop programme that has helped produced many notable writers over the past several years, including Nancy Lee, Steven Galloway, and Zsuzsi Gartner.

He also landed a job at the Arts Club Theatre as Artistic Director Bill Millerd’s assistant. When Irani showed Millerd one of his short stories, “Bullet Number One,” Millerd told Irani to adapt it into a play. That play, The Matka King, premiered at the Arts Club last fall.

“I’ve been fortunate to meet people who have believed in my writing and have supported me, because there is no way you can do it alone. You can write a great play but if no one believes in your writing or no one is interested in taking a risk… My work is a bit risky in the sense that they are stories that really have not been told. They’re set in Bombay, and there’s not too many plays that are set in Bombay.”

http://www.joewiebe.com/books/anosh_irani.htm

						Anosh Irani was born and brought up in Bombay, India. He moved to Vancouver in 1998. His first novel, The Cripple and His Talismans, was published by Raincoast Books in 2004, in the U.S and Germany in 2005, and China in 2007. His second novel, The Song of Kahunsha, was published in 2006 by Doubleday Canada. It was chosen for CBC Radio’s “Canada Reads” in 2007. Rights have been sold to the US, Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Israel, Brazil, and Portugal. His first play, The Matka King, premiered at the Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver, in October 2003. His next play, Bombay Black, was produced in January 2006 by Cahoots Theatre Projects and was the winner of 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards including for Outstanding New Play. He is working on a new play, My Granny the Goldfish, for Canadian Stage http://www.anoshirani.com/author.html