(l-r): Dr. Andrea Rounce (Honorary secretary), David Carr (Board member), David Wright (Board chair), John Vaillant, Ariel Gordon (Book prize publicist)
2024 Dafoe Book Prize Group Photo
Dafoe Prize winner reads at Whodunit
On October 29, the 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize winner, John Vaillant, read from Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast to a full house at Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore.
This reading followed John’s excellent daytime event at the University of Manitoba, in University College’s Concourse Lounge.
David Carr, the former director of University of Manitoba Press and a current J.W. Dafoe Foundation board member, welcomed the audience to the event and introduced John.
Our thanks to Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore for their excellent hosting and to Frenchway Bakery for the platter of cookies.
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The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize is worth $12,000, and is formally awarded at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize Event this fall in Winnipeg.
The Prize is one of the richest book awards in Canada for excellence in non-fiction, with a focus on major subjects involving Canada, the West, and Canadians, as well as the Canadian nation in international affairs.
It memorializes JohnWesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian newspaper editors of the 20th century.
During his tenure at the Manitoba Free Press, later renamed the Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901-1944, Dafoe was known for his advocacy of western development, free trade, national independence, and the British Commonwealth.
The Foundation’s activities also support a $10,000 fellowship for M.A. students pursuing studies in international relations, international conflict resolution, economics, history, law or politics at the University of Manitoba; a $1,000 writing award for Manitoba post-secondary students; the annual J.W. Dafoe Political Studies Students’ Conference (PSSC); a prize for student and community newspaper writers established in partnership with the Winnipeg Press Club; and a number of colloquia on Canada in international affairs.
Dafoe Prize winner speaks at UM
At the end of October, John Vaillant came to Winnipeg for events celebrating his 2024 J.W Dafoe Book Prize-winning book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast.
First up was his daytime event at the University of Manitoba, in University College’s Concourse Lounge. Dr. Gregory Mason, who teaches at UM in addition to his role as juror for the prize, introduced John.
Our thanks to the University of Manitoba Bookstore for coming to sell books and to the Daily Bread for the delicious food.
*
The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize is worth $12,000, and is formally awarded at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize Event this fall in Winnipeg.
The Prize is one of the richest book awards in Canada for excellence in non-fiction, with a focus on major subjects involving Canada, the West, and Canadians, as well as the Canadia
n nation in international affairs.
It memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian newspaper editors of the 20th century. During his tenure at the Manitoba Free Press, later renamed the Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901-1944, Dafoe was known for his advocacy of western development, free trade, national independence, and the British Commonwealth.
The Foundation’s activities also support a $10,000 fellowship for M.A. students pursuing studies in international relations, international conflict resolution, economics, history, law or politics at the University of Manitoba; a $1,000 writing award for Manitoba post-secondary students; the annual J.W. Dafoe Political Studies Students’ Conference (PSSC); a prize for student and community newspaper writers established in partnership with the Winnipeg Press Club; and a number of colloquia on Canada in international affairs.
John Vaillant coming to UManitoba October 29
The J.W. Dafoe Foundation Presents:
The 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize Winner
John Vaillant’s Fire Weather
11:30 am – 12:45 pm
University of Manitoba
University College, Concourse lounge
Duff Roblin Professor of Government Department of Political Studies
University of Manitoba
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John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer based in Vancouver, BC.
His 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.
His latest book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, is the winner of the 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.
Fire Weather also won the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize and and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize.
It has been named one of the best books of 2023 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, NPR, Slate, and Smithsonian. The book earned Vaillant a nod as number four on MacLean’s Power List for Climate in 2024.
Fire Weather is a stunning account of a colossal wildfire and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind.
In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon.
Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event, but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world. With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America’s oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. Vaillant’s urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun.
The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize is awarded to the best book on Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in the world.
John Vaillant coming to Whodunit? October 29
The J.W. Dafoe Foundation Presents:
The 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize Winner
John Vaillant’s Fire Weather
October 29, 7 pm
Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore
163 Lilac Street
Light refreshments provided
*
John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer based in Vancouver, BC.
His 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.
His latest book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, is the winner of the 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.
Fire Weather also won the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize and and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize.
It has been named one of the best books of 2023 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, NPR, Slate, and Smithsonian. The book earned Vaillant a nod as number four on MacLean’s Power List for Climate in 2024.
Fire Weather is a stunning account of a colossal wildfire and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind.
In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon.
Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event, but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world. With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America’s oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. Vaillant’s urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun.