Fire Weather: the Making of a Beast by John Vaillant

Lyceum Agency John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer based in Vancouver, BC whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Guardian, among others. His journalism, fiction, and non-fiction explores collisions between human ambition and the natural world.

A Vancouver-based writer recounts “the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history.”

This week on The Write Question, in the first of a two-part conversation, host Lauren Korn speaks with Vancouver, Canada-based journalist John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World (Alfred A. Knopf).

You can listen to the second part of their conversation here.

John Vaillant, the author of "Fire Weather" (one of our 10 Best Books this year), discusses climate change and the fire that devastated a Canadian petroleum town in 2026.

Two reviews of Vaillant’s book, from two well-qualified writers, one in Canada and one in the U.S., written from two divergent perspectives yet reaching similar conclusions and opinions about the book.