John Vaillant (born June 4, 1962) is an American-Canadian writer and journalist whose work has appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

, National Geographic'', and '' Outside''. He has written both non-fiction and fiction books.

Personal life

Vaillant was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

and has lived in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

since 1998. He is the son of Harvard psychologist

George Eman Vaillant George Eman Vaillant (; born June 16, 1934) is an American psychiatrist and Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of Research for the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Vaillant has spent his research career charting ...

, and grandson to the famed anthropologist George Clapp Vaillant.

Writing career

His first book, ''The Golden Spruce'', dealt with the felling of the Golden Spruce or Kiidk'yaas on

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

by Grant Hadwin. His 2010 work, ''The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival'' is about a man-eating tiger incident that happened in the 1990s in Russia's

Far Eastern The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...

, where most of the world's

Amur tiger The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies '' Panthera tigris tigris'' native to the Russian Far East, Northeast China and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, but currently inhabi ...

s live. It is a mixture of investigative journalism, social history, geography and natural writing. It won a number of awards and was selected for the 2012 edition of

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

's ''

Canada Reads ''Canada Reads'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language ''Canada Reads'' on CBC Radio One, and the Frenc ...

'', defended by lawyer and television personality Anne-France Goldwater. His next book was ''The Jaguar's Children'' (2015), 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 a shortlisted nominee for the 2015

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize The Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, formerly known as the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, is a Canadian literary award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada after an annual juried competition of works submitted by publishers. A ...

. ''The Jaguar's Children'' received positive reviews from the ''New York Times'' and ''NPR''.

Writing style

Vaillant is known for focusing on environmental issues - such as trees in the northwest, nearly-extinct tigers, and GMO corn in Mexico - and mixing that with stories about crime or violence.

Awards and honors

*2005

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

, ''The Golden Spruce'' *2005 Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, ''The Golden Spruce'' *2010

British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-fiction was a Canadian literary award.The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' Best Book for Science 2010, ''The Tiger'' *2012 ''Nicolas Bouvier Prize'' in Saint Malo, France, ''The Tiger'' (French translation) *2014 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Nonfiction, achievement award valued at $150,000 the largest of its kind.

Bibliography

Vaillant is the author of three books: * * * *

References

External links

* Canadian non-fiction writers Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Writers from Vancouver Living people Governor General's Award-winning non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian male novelists 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers 1962 births {{Canada-writer-stub