Accession 2011-13 - Ven Begamudre

Ven (Venkatesh) Sopher Begamudré was born in 1956 at Bangalore, India. Immigrating to Canada at the age of six, he has lived in Ottawa, Kingston and Vancouver, and currently resides in Regina.

Begamudré served with the Governor-General’s Foot Guards of the Canadian Armed Forces, Land Reserve from October 1973 until September 1974 in Ottawa and with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in 1973 in Vancouver. At Schiller College in Paris in 1975, he studied international administration and French. In 1977 he graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Public Administration. A Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing was obtained from Warren Wilson College in 1999.

Begamudré is a short story writer, novelist and editor. He has published numerous short stories, articles, poems, prose, essays and reviews in various journals and anthologies. Several of his short stories have been broadcast on radio and television. He has provided readings at conferences and workshops.

He has been a writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, with the Canada-Scotland Exchange Writer-in-Residence Program in Edinburgh, and with the Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Programme at the University of Calgary. He has taught creative writing at the Sage Hill Writing Experience, the University of Regina Extension Department, and the Saskatchewan School of the Arts