Neil Bissoondath is a Trinidadian-born Canadian writer who currently resides in Quebec. He was born in Arima, Trinidad, to Crisen Bissoondath, a businessman, and Sati, a teacher. He is the nephew of writers Shiva Naipaul and V.S. Naipaul. His great-grandparents were among the first group of indentured laborers who came from India but never returned. They struggled for years to move away from indentured labor to open a small general store in Sangre Grande, Trinidad. The store provided a livelihood, and the children pursued education to make a life away from sugarcane and paddy fields. The sociopolitical milieu during the 1960s became the defining factor in Bissoondath’s writings, which consistently brought out the communal riots, racial discrimination, and social insecurity of the Indians settled in Caribbean islands. He moved to Canada in 1973 to study at York University and pursue his dream of becoming a writer like his uncle. However, the in-between feeling, a common diasporic experience, engulfed him, and his visit home to meet his parents brought clarity to his settling in Canada. After finishing his BA in French literature from York University, he taught French and English at the Inlingua Institute of Language and later at the Toronto Language Workshop, of which he became a Director in 1982. His experience as an immigrant and those around him motivated him to write stories about migration and its physical, social, and economic problems. He received the second highest honor for merit—the Order of Canada and L’Ordre national du Quebec.