Yann Martel

Man Booker Prize winning author of the international bestseller Life of Pi

portrait
Yann Martel photographed during Cape Farewell’s 2009 Andes Expedition. Photo by Marije de Haas.

“Climate change on its own is an impersonal force, deeply disempowering. Art inspired by climate change, because the making of art is personally involving, a whole-person activity, is empowering, both for the maker and the spectator.”

Yann Martel, 2009

Canadian author joined the 2009 Andes Expedition, Cape Farewell’s first expedition outside the Arctic, an 18 day trek through shrinking glaciers, cloud forests, lower forests, areas of deforestation and the Amazon. During the expedition he wrote a blog for CNN, direct from the Amazonian Basin.
Read the blog post on CNN

Having just hiked for 3 weeks through the Peruvian Amazon with Cape Farewell’s Andes expedition, Yann Martel reflects on the experience – and possibly future work

“What have I learnt? It’s too early yet to say for sure, but I’ll venture this: We, all of us, must learn that fine balance between the prosperity of our own species and the well-being of the planet, we must, like hot and bustling Puerto Maldonado, manage our economic assets so that our affairs continue to be bustling without our environment becoming too hot…”

Yann Martel, 10/07/2009, CNN blog excerpt

Yann Martel is the author of a collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, the novel, Self, and the international bestseller Life of Pi, for which he won the 2002 Man Booker Prize. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

What is Stephen Harper Reading? is Yann Martel’s brilliant project, delivering a book to Stephen Harper, Prime Minster of Canada, every two weeks for as long as he is Prime Minister. Each book is inscribed and accompanied by a letter explaining the choice. On 30 March 2009 he received Cape Farewell’s first book Burning Ice.

Read Yann Martel’s expedition blog for CNN
About the 2009 Andes Expedition

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