John Vaillant Explained

John H. Vaillant
Birth Place:Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation:Journalist
Nationality:Canadian/American

John Vaillant (born 1962) is an American-Canadian writer and journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside. He has written both non-fiction and fiction books.

Personal life

Vaillant was born and raised in Massachusetts and has lived in Vancouver since 1998.[1] He is the son of Harvard psychiatrist and social scientist George Eman Vaillant, and grandson to the famed archaeologist George Clapp Vaillant. He is married to the potter, writer and anthropologist Nora Walsh.[2]

Writing career

Vaillant's first book, The Golden Spruce,[3] dealt with the felling of the Golden Spruce or Kiidk'yaas on Haida Gwaii by Grant Hadwin. It was a bestseller and won a number of awards.

In 2010, he published The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival about a man-eating tiger incident that took place in 1997, in Russia's Far Eastern Primorsky Krai, where most of the world's Amur tigers live. It was a bestseller and won a number of awards before being translated into 16 languages. Film rights were optioned by Brad Pitt's film company, Plan B.

In 2015, Vaillant published The Jaguar's Children, a novel about an undocumented Mexican immigrant trapped inside the empty tank of a water truck that has been abandoned in the desert by human smugglers. The novel was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Prize and the Kirkus Fiction Prize. It was shortlisted for the 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.[4] The Jaguar's Children received positive reviews from the New York Times and NPR.[5] [6]

Vaillant's fourth book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast,[7] was published in 2023. It follows the events and aftermath of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, which caused billions of dollars worth of damage and destroyed around 2400 homes and forced the evacuation of over 80,000 people,[8] and describes the anthropological history between humans and fire, how it has shaped our societies, and how it now threatens them in the context of climate change.[9] Fire Weather came out June 6, 2023, which opinion writer David Wallace-Wells of The New York Times said was, “unfortunately, exquisitely timed.”[10] The book’s release coincided with the start of several days of hazardous smoke levels and a thick yellowish haze across the eastern United States due to profuse smoke plumes from Canadian wildfires that drifted south. Fire Weather was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction,[11] and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.[12] It was awarded Britain's £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in November 2023.[13]

Awards and honors

Bibliography

Vaillant is the author of four books:

Notes and References

  1. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/tiger-tale-takes-richest-non-fiction-prize/article1889472/ "Tiger tale takes richest non-fiction prize"
  2. Web site: Moreau . Vivian . 2006-06-02 . John Vaillant wrote a golden egg of a book . 2023-11-15 . Pique Newsmagazine . en.
  3. Web site: Review of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed by John Vaillant. 14 February 2005. Publishers Weekly.
  4. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/globe-columnist-among-rogers-writers-trust-fiction-prize-nominees/article26582098/ "Globe columnist among Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize nominees"
  5. News: 'The Jaguar's Children,' by John Vaillant . 13 February 2015 . 9 February 2017 . New York Times . Amanda Eyre Ward .
  6. Web site: 'The Jaguar's Children' Is Ripped From Heartbreaking Headlines . 20 January 2015 . 9 February 2017 . NPR . Alan Cheuse .
  7. Web site: Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant. 23 May 2023. Penguin Random House.
  8. News: Fort McMurray wildfire: Shifting weather forces more evacuations. 4 May 2016. 31 May 2023. Global News. Karen Bartko & Emily Mertz.
  9. Web site: Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant. 23 May 2023. Penguin Random House.
  10. News: The New York Times. As Smoke Darkens the Sky, the Future Becomes Clear. Wallace-Wells. David . June 7, 2023. June 7, 2023.
  11. News: 2023 National Book Awards Finalist for Nonfiction .
  12. Brad Wheeler, "Shortlist for $75,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction includes past winner John Vaillant, scholar Christina Sharpe". The Globe and Mail, September 20, 2023.
  13. News: Creamer . Ella . John Vaillant wins Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize with ‘highly relevant’ work on wildfires . 19 November 2023 . The Guardian . 17 November 2023.
  14. https://www.straight.com/article-371007/vancouver/john-vaillants-tiger-wins-bcs-national-award-canadian-nonfiction "John Vaillant's The Tiger wins B.C.'s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction"
  15. Web site: Prize Citation for John Vaillant . Windham–Campbell Literature Prize . March 7, 2014 . March 8, 2014 . March 8, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140308081025/http://windhamcampbell.org/2014/winner/john-vaillant . dead .
  16. Web site: 2023-10-05 . National Book Award finalists announced . 2023-11-20 . Books+Publishing.

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