Port Angeles has bloomed with literary events in recent weeks. The Raymond Carver Writing Festival and its all-star cast of novelists and poets had a dense schedule of readings and workshops last week at Peninsula College, The Field Arts and Events Hall, and at Ocean View Cemetery.

Then, starting on April 30, decorated nature writer John Vaillant (pronounced “VAL-yuhnt”) was the Peninsula College’s 2024 Writer In Residence. By train and car, Vaillant traveled from Vancouver, British Colombia, on April 29, and over the next three days, he gave a few readings, some book signings and a radio interview.

On May 6, Vaillant’s most recent book “Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World” was announced as a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. He has been touring the environmental-disaster book for the last two years, and will continue for months to come.

His first book, “The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed” was published in 2005. That year, he gave his first Port Angeles reading.

Since then, Vaillant has given numerous local readings at venues such as Port Book and News and the Raymond Carver room in the North Olympic Library’s Port Angeles building.

Sequim Gazette photo by Elijah Sussman / Author John Vaillant stands in front of Peninsula College Library on April 30.

Bookstore owners Allen and Cindy Turner said they have sold more copies of “The Golden Spruce” than Harry Potter books. “It’s the single best selling book in the history of our book store,” Allen Turner said.

In 2023, Port Book and News hosted the first American reading of “Fire Weather” and they were able to sell it a day before its official release.

“His writing is fantastic, he’s very careful about his writing, he’s very detailed in his writing, and he’s easy to read. I can put the book in someone’s hand, knowing that if they like the subject matter, they are going to like the book,” Allen Turner said.

Exploring existential threats to individuals, to the human species, and to plants and animals is a through line in his work. Having published four books now, Vaillant has himself begun to see themes emerge in his work.

“I see patterns of appalling violence and heinous betrayal, people in charge letting down the people, entities, beings, or landscapes that they should be stewarding,” he said.

Speaking to what compels him towards telling certain stories rather than others, he said, “It’s not all altruistic desires for social or climate justice, it’s like, ‘What am I working on, and what am I dealing with?’ I’m drawn to stories of collisions between human ambition and the natural world.”

Writer-In-Residence

On May 1, a small group of students and community members gathered in room J-147 on the college campus. As the last of the students trickled in Vaillant began a presentation on his only work of fiction, “Jaguar Children.”

Peninsula College professor Matt Teorey, whose fiction students were in attendance, spoke to the value of the Writer In Residency series: “When students only know authors as names on the page, literature can seem distant, even historic. One benefit of meeting an author is that their story seems more personal, immediate, and relevant.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Elijah Sussman / John Vaillant and Writer in Residency organizer Rich Riski shuffle-off campus to KONP interview on April 30.

Teorey’s class read “Jaguars Children” while discussing the idea of setting in story. “Jaguar Children” is the story of a young Oaxacan man, Héctor, who finds himself stuck in a water-tanker somewhere near the US-Mexico border. He and a group of fellow travelers are subject to the rising and dropping temperatures of the April dessert as their water supplies wear thin.

Believing he is in the U.S., searching through his unconscious friend’s cell phone, he comes across a single U.S. phone number for “AnniMac.” He begins texting her desperately. As this main narrative urgently unfolds, Hector recalls stories from his life in Mexico via text message.

Vaillant shared a PowerPoint presentation with cultural artifacts and practices relevant to the characters in his story including a clay Zapotec head and fiery festivities in the streets of Oaxaca Centro.

He also shares an infrared image from U.S Customs and Border Patrol showing a group of immigrants being smuggled across the border in the back of a truck.

Two days later, walking on Hollywood Beach, Vaillant expresses the satisfaction he gets from the research portion of his writing process, “Having an excuse to delve deeply, that’s half the fun of it. If you’re a naturally curious person, this gives you a chance to really geek out on something.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Elijah Sussman / Author John Vaillant walks on Hollywood Beach, in front of Red Lion Hotel on May 2.

Rich Riski, organizer of the Writer In Residence series, reflected upon Vaillant’s most recent book: “’Fire Weather’ presents a vivid, disturbing picture of how climate change has escalated for decades, culminating in a phenomenon that he calls the ‘21st-century wildfire’ which can create its own swarm of tornadoes and vaporize a modern home in five to ten minutes as inferno-level heat consumes synthetic building materials.”

For all of fearful realities that Vaillant covers in his work, he maintains a grounded optimism. He says that humanity has already undergone all of the conditions which we can expect in the future, and sought solutions for it’s survival. Except for fire tornadoes, fire tornadoes are a 21st century phenomenon.

He didn’t have anything to say about his next book, his page is blank for now. It’s usually about five years between releases. When that book does finally appear, expect a John Vaillant reading in Port Angeles.