Ven Begamudre

Friends and family of Ven Begamudré are sad to announce his death on 5 July 2026 at Santa Maria Senior Citizens Home in Regina, Saskatchewan. Full of wit, determination, kindness, and devilry, Ven was an accomplished writer, a faithful friend, a lively storyteller, and a conscientious mentor of younger writers, particularly those of the South Asian diaspora. He was predeceased by his parents, Rakosh-Das Begamudré and Chintakindi Lakshmi-Bai, to whom he was an only child. Born in India, Ven came, after a short period in Mauritius, with his parents to Canada when he was six years old.

He served as a cadet during his teens and completed a BA degree in Public Administration at Carleton University in 1977. While at Carleton, he proudly served on Parliament hill in the Governor General’s Foot Guards and was a community leader in Carleton University’s residences. A year after graduation, he accepted a job with the civil service in Regina, Saskatchewan. In Regina, he launched his forty-some-year career as a writer, taking writing workshops and seminars at Fort San, the Banff Centre of the Arts, and the Sage Hill Writing Experience. He won multiple grants and awards as a writer of over ten books, including novels, short stories, children’s stories, poetry, and non-fiction. He achieved national prominence and served on the Writers Union of Canada, the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, and on the juries for provincial and national writing awards. He was appointed to writing residencies in Edinburgh, Yukon, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Hamilton, Ontario.

Ven loved travel, and recalled his time in Bali with particular fondness. Even after publishing his first four books, he remained committed to improving his craft, completing an MFA in Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina in 1999. Everywhere Ven went as a writer and a student of writing, he dedicated himself to upcoming writers, reading their drafts, helping them see how to strengthen and improve their work, opening doors to publication for a diverse community of writers. Always aware of the racial and cultural boundaries that exist in the arts, as in many professions, Ven was willing to point out the elephant in the room and to build relationships and alliances that could create a wider world of diverse and dynamic writing. In the last decade of his life, Ven faced increasing health challenges with diabetes, COPD, and eventually lung cancer.

We offer thanks to the many workers in healthcare and social services, as well as his circle of friends, that took good care of Ven in the final decade of his life, particularly the kind and conscientious medical staff at Santa Maria Senior Citizens Home in Regina.

Following his wishes, Ven has been cremated. There will be a memorial service for Ven in the chapel at Santa Maria Senior Citizens Home (4215 Regina Ave, S4S 0J5) at 10:30 am on 4 August 2026. An online gathering of Ven’s writing community will be planned and announced in the coming months.

Ven requested that donations be made to Sage Hill Writing,  https://sagehillwriting.ca/support-sage-hill/