Russell Wangersky
Writer
About Russell Wangersky
Winner of the B.C. National Non-Fiction Book Award and the Rogers Cable Non-fiction Prize (NL) for Burning Down the House
Russell talks with Shelagh Rogers about writing, firefighting and the toll it took on his life.
Listen to the The Next Chapter's January 10 podcast here»
Russell Wangersky is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. Based in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, he is the author of two books and the editor of the daily newspaper The Telegram.
His latest book, Burning Down the House (published by Thomas Allen and chosen as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 books in 2008), is a riveting account of his experiences dealing with human tragedy and his own resulting trauma as a volunteer firefighter. This marks a return to dramatic terrain that fans of Wangersky’s will recognize. Andreas Shroeder, in announcing Wangersky’s 2003 Maclean Hunter Endowment Award for his literary essay "The Mechanics of Injury”, said: “Finally, a beautifully calibrated, finely honed account of a firefighter’s experiences in three dimensions.”
Wangersky's vivid, incisive style has garnered awards and accolades, and his first book,T
he Hour of Bad Decisions (Coteau), was heralded as a beautifully crafted collection of short stories.
It's as if the wickedly observant Alice Munro and the bawdy Al Purdy had produced a love child, by way of a gritty newsroom... (Toronto Star, April 30, 2006)
Wangersky is completing a novel, to be released in the spring of 2010, for which he received Canada Council funding.
He continues to write editorials and columns for The Telegram.