Nationality Canadian Period 2010s-present | Name Michael Harris | |
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Occupation non-fiction, journalism, young adult literature Notable works The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection | ||
Michael Harris is a Canadian author and journalist. His first book, The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 2014 Governor General's Awards. It was also long-listed for both the RBC Charles Taylor Prize and the B.C. National Nonfiction Award. The End of Absence is a reported memoir about living through a "Gutenberg Moment." It is a portrait of the last generation in history to remember life before the Internet. By describing the constant connectivity of contemporary life, Harris explores the idea that lack and absence are actually human virtues being stripped from us. Harris's argument about online life was extended in his second work, Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World, where he argues that solitude should be thought of as a resource that has been exploited and monetized by devices and platform technologies.
Harris is a former staff editor for Vancouver Magazine and Western Living, and his writing has also appeared in Wired, Salon, Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, Xtra Vancouver, Maisonneuve, the National Post and The Walrus. He has been nominated for both the Western Magazine Awards and the National Magazine Awards for his writing.
In 2012, he also published the young adult novel Homo, about a gay teenager struggling with coming out in high school.