Kate Harris
Born1982 (age 41–42)[1]
NationalityCanadian
Known forAward-winning author
Websitekateharris.ca

Kate Harris (born in 1982) is a Canadian author.[2]

Early life

Harris was born in Ontario and grew up dreaming of exploring Mars.[2] She viewed the Earth as having been thoroughly explored and charted before her lifetime, so she set her eyes on another planet. This life-long inspiration to explore led her to bike across the Silk Road, which she documented in her first book Lands of Lost Borders.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina in the U.S, she studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lands of Lost Borders

Her first book, Lands of Lost Borders, a nonfiction book describing her experiences bicycling 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) of Asia's historic Silk Road over a 14 month period in 2011, won the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize, the 2019 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, the 2019 Edna Staebler Award.[3] and the 2019 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. The RBC Taylor prize comes with a $30,000 cash award. The Kobo Emerging Writer's Prize and Edna Staebler Award each come with a $10,000 cash award. The book was a Canadian bestseller.[4]

She undertook the trip documented in her book with a friend.

Current works

Harris currently[when?] lives off-grid in northern British Columbia, near the Yukon border.[3][1]

In an interview with Anna Maria Tremonti, of The Current, Harris described falling in love with the land around Atlin, British Columbia when she skied across the nearby Juneau Icefield as part of an undergraduate field course in glaciology.[5] She currently shares a small cabin there with her partner.

Harris is working on a second book.

References

  1. ^ a b Adina Bresge (March 4, 2019). "Adventurer Kate Harris 'on another world' after winning RBC Taylor Prize". National Post. Toronto. Retrieved July 10, 2019. At first, the trek just seemed like a way to pass the time before Harris launched into orbit. But as the Rhodes scholar returned to her studies at Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it dawned on her that there was plenty to discover on her home planet, so she decided to ditch the classroom for the wide-open road.
  2. ^ a b "26 Canadian books that won awards in the first half of 2019". CBC News. July 8, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Erin Balser (March 4, 2019). "Kate Harris wins $30K RBC Taylor Prize for travel memoir Lands of Lost Borders". CBC News. Retrieved July 10, 2019. In Lands of Lost Borders, Harris recounts her 10,000 kilometre cycling trip along the Silk Road, crossing into 10 countries — including Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Tibet — with her friend Mel Yule. Along the 10-month journey, Harris explores the political, cultural and environmental history of the places and people she encounters.
  4. ^ "The bestselling Canadian books for the week of May 19 to May 26, 2019".
  5. ^ Anna Marie Tremonti (December 13, 2018). "Kate Harris". The Current. Retrieved July 10, 2019.

External links

Winners of the Edna Staebler Award
Authority control databases
Categories