Yann Martel

A life across languages

Yann Martel is a Canadian author born on June 25, 1963, in Salamanca, Spain, to French-Canadian parents, Émile Martel and Nicole Perron. His parents were then studying at the University of Salamanca: his mother in Hispanic studies, his father working on a PhD about the Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno. Martel’s first language is French, but he writes in English, a fact that fits a life spent moving among countries, schools, and cultures.

His childhood was marked by movement. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Coimbra, Portugal, then to Madrid, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Victoria, British Columbia, where his father taught at universities. After his parents joined the Canadian foreign service, Martel was raised in San José, Costa Rica; Paris, France; and Madrid, Spain, with periods in Ottawa between postings. He finished high school at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough.

Before his books made him widely read, Martel worked a series of odd jobs, including parking lot attendant in Ottawa, dishwasher, tree-planting camp worker in northern Ontario, and security guard at the Canadian Embassy in Paris. He also travelled through Mexico, South America, Iran, Turkey, and India. He began writing at university, producing plays and short stories that he later described as “blighted by immaturity and dreadful.” That plain self-judgment hints at the patience behind his later work.

Books, prizes, and public work

Martel’s work first appeared in print in 1988, when The Malahat Review published his short story “Mister Ali and the Barrelmaker.” The same magazine later published “The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios,” which won the 1991 Journey Prize, and another story that won a National Magazine Award gold. His first story collection, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, appeared in 1993. His first novel, Self, followed in 1996.

He is best known for Life of Pi, published on September 11, 2001. The novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2002, became an international bestseller, was published in more than 50 territories, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, and spent more than a year on bestseller lists including those of The New York Times and The Globe and Mail. It was later adapted into a film directed by Ang Lee, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Director, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Martel’s other books include Beatrice and Virgil, The High Mountains of Portugal, Son of Nobody, and 101 Letters to a Prime Minister.

Martel has also taught and worked in literary posts, including as Samuel Fischer Visiting Professor at the Free University of Berlin in 2002, writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library from 2003, and visiting scholar at the University of Saskatchewan from 2005 to 2007. From 2007 to 2011, he sent then Prime Minister Stephen Harper a book every two weeks, later collecting the letters in 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. Martel lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with writer Alice Kuipers and their four children. His words continue to matter because they come from a writer alert to travel, language, imagination, and the stubborn need for art in public life.