Kate Harris (born in 1982) is a Canadian author.
Early life
Harris was born in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
and grew up dreaming of exploring
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...
.
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
The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...
in the U.S, she studied at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...
as a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
and then at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
.
Lands
of Lost Borders
Her first book, ''Lands of Lost Borders'', a nonfiction book describing her experiences bicycling of Asia's historic
Silk Road over a 14 month period in 2011, won the 2019
RBC Taylor Prize
The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It is named for Charles P. B. Taylor, a n ...
, the 2019
Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented since 2015 by online e-book and audiobook retailer and eReader manufacturer Rakuten Kobo.
Awardees receive a $10,000 prize, and are provided with support in marketing their bo ...
, the 2019
Edna Staebler Award
The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is an annual literary award recognizing the previous year's best creative nonfiction book with a "Canadian locale and/or significance" that is a Canadian writer's "first or second published book o ...
.
and the 2019
Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is an annual prize of £3,000 awarded by the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust to an author or authors for "an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature". The pr ...
. 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.
She undertook the trip documented in her book with a friend.
Current works
Harris currently lives
off-grid in northern
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
, near the
Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
border.
In an interview with
Anna Maria Tremonti
Anna Maria Tremonti (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian radio and television journalist who has been featured on a variety of radio and television programs on the CBC.
She has served as a senior reporter for '' The National'', where she won two G ...
, of ''
The Current'', Harris described falling in love with the land around
Atlin, British Columbia
Atlin (Tlingit: ''Wéinaa'') is a community in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located on the eastern shore of Atlin Lake. In addition to continued gold-mining activity, Atlin is a tourist destination for fishing, hiking and Heliskiing. As ...
when she skied across the nearby
Juneau Icefield
The Juneau Icefield is an ice field located just north of Juneau, Alaska, continuing north through the border with British Columbia, extending through an area of in the Coast Range ranging north to south and east to west. The icefield is the ...
as part of an undergraduate field course in
glaciology
Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, c ...
.
She currently shares a small cabin there with her partner.
Harris is working on a second book.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Kate
21st-century Canadian women writers
21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers
Living people
1982 births