John Vaillant in Conversation with Hayden Sammak

Country Bookshelf is excited to welcome author and journalist John Vaillant in conversation with Hayden Sammak, host of the Backcountry Podcast, to discuss John's award-winning book Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World.

Tickets are not required for this event, but RSVPs are appreciated. Please get a FREE general admission ticket by selecting "Get Tickets" at the bottom of this page.

Books can be purchased at the event or ordered in advance on our website or by calling Country Bookshelf at (406) 587-0166 during regular business hours.

The event at a glance:

• On November 19, please arrive early to secure your seat. Seating is general admission, first come, first served.

• At 6:00pm, the event program featuring John Vaillant in discussion with Hayden Sammak will begin. The author will take audience questions following the program.

• After the talk, John Vaillant will sign books.

• Can't attend in person? Order a signed copy of Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World our website or by calling (406) 587-0166. Signing requests will need to be placed 24 hours before the event.

About Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION • FINALIST FOR THE PEN/GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION

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 neighborhoods 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—John 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.

Fire has been a partner in our evolution for hundreds of millennia, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously unimaginable ways.

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. John Vaillant’s urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun.

About John Vaillant

John Vaillant’s acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The Golden Spruce and The Tiger, were national best sellers. His debut novel, The Jaguar’s Children, was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. Vaillant has received the Governor General’s Literary Award, British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Pearson Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He has written for, among others, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, National Geographic, and the Walrus. He lives in Vancouver.

About Hayden Sammak

Hayden Sammak is the host of the Backcountry Manifesto podcast, where he interviews writers, adventure athletes, scientists, and more. Recent guests include 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Edda Fields-Black, astronaut Loral O’Hara, climbing legend John Long, and bestselling author Hampton Sides, among many others. An outdoor enthusiast, Hayden spends much of his life traveling for his writing and the adventures he covers, with work appearing in publications such as Outdoor Life. He lives in Bozeman with his wife, Catherine, and their two labs, Boone and Weller.

Accessibility Information:

• The event will take place on the first floor of Country Bookshelf.

• All doorways have a width greater than 32 inches with the narrowest being our front door at 35 inches.

• The speakers will be using a microphone at this event.

• Please email staff@countrybookshelf.com if you have any specific accessibility needs and we will do our best to serve you!