Vassanji, M. G. (1950-...), is a Kenyan-born Canadian writer of South Asian descent. Much of his fiction concerns the experience of the South Asians who lived in East Africa when it was under European colonial rule, but who have since been forced to move to other countries, often ending up in Canada. This series of displacements opens the way for an examination of conflicts between old and new ways of life, and between individuals and the communities in which they live. Vassanji won the Giller Prize, one of Canada's leading literary awards, for his novels The Book of Secrets (1994) and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (2003). His other novels include The Gunny Sack (1989), No New Land (1991), and Amriika (2000). His short stories have been collected in Uhuru Street (1992) and When She Was Queen (2005).