Michael Harris
Michael Harris is the author of The End of Absence, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award and became a national bestseller. He writes about media, civil liberties, and the arts for dozens of publications, including Washington Post, Wired, Salon, The Huffington Post, and The Globe and Mail. His work has been a finalist for the RBC Taylor Prize, the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Chautauqua Prize, the CBC Bookie Awards, and several National Magazine Awards. He lives in Vancouver with his partner, the artist Kenny Park.
Solitude
The capacity to be truly alone is one of life’s subtlest skills. Real solitude allows us to reflect and recharge, improving our relationships with ourselves and, paradoxically, with others. Today, though, the zeitgeist embraces sharing like never before. Fueled by our dependence on social media, we have created an ecosystem of obsessive distraction that dangerously undervalues solitude. Many of us are ever-connected, but only shallowly so. Harris examines why our experience of solitude has become so impoverished, and how we may grow to love it again in our digital landscape. Rich with true stories about the life-changing power of solitude, and interwoven with reporting from the world’s foremost brain researchers, psychologists and tech entrepreneurs, Solitude is a beautiful and prescriptive statement on the benefits of being alone.