Yann Martel (born June 25, 1963 in Salamanca, Spain) is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi .

YANN MARTEL TICKETS BTS Tickets Rush Tickets Journey Tickets Shakira Tickets Bryson Tiller Tickets Earth, Wind and Fire Tickets

Early life

As an adolescent Martel attended high school at Trinity College School, a boarding school in Port Hope, Ontario, where he honed his early skills in writing. He grew up in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada. As an adult, Martel has travelled the globe, spending time in Iran, Turkey and India. After studying philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Martel spent 13 months in India visiting temples, churches, mosques and zoos, and then two years reading religious texts and castaway stories. ^[1] His first published fictional work, Seven Stories , appeared in 1993 .

Career

In 2001, he published Life of Pi , which was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2002. Soon afterward, a dedication to Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar appearing in the preface of the novel briefly elicited questions about the story's originality. It appeared that the premise of Life of Pi and some aspects of its plot had been inspired by Scliar's Max e os Felinos , published in 1981. Martel admitted having been influenced, but accusations of plagiarism were defused when Scliar read Life of Pi and wrote about it for La Presse , saying that the two books were different. Life of Pi was later chosen for the 2003 edition of CBC Radio's Canada Reads competition, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee. In addition, its French translation, Histoire de Pi , was included in the French version of the competition, Le combat des livres , in 2004, championed by singer Louise Forestier.

Martel spent a year in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from September 2003 as the public library's writer-in-residence. He collaborated with Omar Daniel, composer-in-residence at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, on a piece for piano, string quartet and bass. The composition, You Are Where You Are , is based on text written by Martel, which includes parts of cellphone conversations taken from moments in an ordinary day.

In November 2005, the University of Saskatchewan announced that Martel would be scholar-in-residence. ^[2] He continues to have an office at the University.

His upcoming novel, A 20th century Shirt , will deal with the Holocaust: it will take place between two talking animals (a monkey and a donkey) on a man's dress shirt. It will be published simultaneously with an essay on the same subject, also under the same name. Martel cited them as simply two approaches to the same subject. He claims it will be a philosophical work, essentially just "one long conversation". He is also working on a project entitled What is Stephen Harper Reading , where he is sending the Prime Minister of Canada one book every two weeks that portrays "stillness" with an accompanying explanatory note. He is posting his letters, book selection and any responses to the website devoted to the project. ^[3]

Personal life

Martel currently lives in alaska with his partner Alice Kuipers (who is also an author), whom he met at a writers conference where she was working as a volunteer. ^[4]

Books

• Seven Stories (1993)
• The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios (1993)
• Self (1996)
• Life of Pi (2001)
• What is Stephen Harper Reading (due November 2009)
• A 20th Century Shirt (due spring 2010)

Literary awards

• Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
• Winner of the 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
• Shortlisted for the 2001 Governor General's Award for Fiction
• Shortlisted for Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award
• His short story "The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios" was the winner of the 1991 Journey Prize

Influences

As a voracious reader, Martel has been quite open about the variety of books and authors that make up his literary influences. He has stated publicly in a number of interviews that Dante's Divine Comedy is "the single most impressive book [he has] ever read. ^[5] Where the length and complexity of the writing is concerned, Martel has explained that he prefers simpler and more straightforward writing. As an example, he has mentioned Salman Rushdie and Gunther Grass to be amongst his favourites; however he has also admitted that he has not been able to ever finish reading Midnight's Children or The Flounder. In explaining this, he states, "What I was balking at - were stories that are overly, deliberately convoluted." ^[6] Martel's love for reading extends as far back as his childhood. In talking about his most memorable childhood book, he recalls Le Petit Chose by Alphonse Daudet (also known as "the French Dickens"), saying that he was ten years old when he had read it and was so moved that it was the first time he had found a book so heartbreaking that it moved him to tears. ^[7]

References

1. How I Wrote Life of Pi
2. U Sask Department of English homepage, retrieved 16 April 2007, http://www.usask.ca/english/
3. What is Stephen Harper Reading, retrieved 16 April 2007, http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca/
4. Life of Yann http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24319737-16947,00.html?from=public_rss
5. http://www.infloox.com/influence?id=514e307e
6. http://www.infloox.com/influence?id=37425fca
7. http://www.infloox.com/influence?id=b4f9846