John Vaillant
John Vaillant is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and the Walrus, among others. His first book, The Golden Spruce (Knopf, 2005), was a bestseller and won several awards, including the Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction. His second nonfiction book, The Tiger (Knopf, 2010), was also an award-winning bestseller and has been published in fifteen languages. In 2014, he won the Windham-Campbell Prize for Nonfiction (worldwide English). His first novel, The Jaguar’s Children (Knopf, 2015), a first-person account of a young Mexican’s ordeal on the U.S. border, was a bestseller and a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Vaillant lives with his family in Vancouver, BC where he is at work on a new nonfiction project.
Fiction
The Jaguar’s Children (Knopf, 2015)
- Translations: French, Spanish
Non-Fiction
The Tiger (Knopf, 2010)
- Translations: fifteen languages
- Feature film rights: Plan B / Focus Features
The Golden Spruce(Knopf, 2005)
- Translations: Korean, French, German, Spanish (pending)
- Documentary film “Hadwin’s Judgement”: NFB / Passion Pictures"
Title: Reckoning the Present: Mediating the tension between the muse and the news
Abstract: Throughout my career, the act and profession of writing have been energized by the momentum of my interests on the one hand, and by the intrusion of current events on the other. The resulting tension presents an ongoing quandary: what matters more - the muse or the news? As a writer, an artist, a citizen, are you morally obligated to serve one over the other? Is it more ‘pure’ to simply tune out the present and write what’s in your heart and on your mind? Or should we take our cues from the zeitgeist, and participate - if only intellectually - in the events of the day? How do you decide? Is the answer clearer with nonfiction as opposed to fiction, poetry, or drama? In my inaugural talk as 小优视频’s writer-in-residence, I will be exploring these questions as they pertain both to my writing, and to the dramatic and pivotal historical moment in which we find ourselves.
Title: What am I doing here? The role of the first person voice in non-fiction narrative
Abstract: One of the ways non-fiction differentiates itself from memoir is by being about somebody else. But does that mean the author has no place in the narrative? This is a question that has occupied me for my entire career. In this second talk, I want to explore the pros, cons and rationale for leaving the narrative free from first-person intervention (as I did in The Golden Spruce and The Tiger), and/or including it - something I'm experimenting with in my current project, a non-fiction exploration of the Fort McMurray Fire and the synergistic interdependence between fire and human ambition.
Updated June 04, 2026 by Digital & Web Operations, University Relations (web_services@athabascau.ca)