Today is publication day for another edition of Sutherland Quarterly, the series of short books on contemporary themes by various authors. The latest is called Jasper on Fire: Five Days of Hell in a Rocky Mountain Paradise.
It’s by Calgary journalist Matthew Scace, who you probably haven’t heard of. He was at the Calgary Herald until the end of 2024, and he’s now started a job at the Canadian Press. He’s 26.
Last summer’s Jasper wildfire is a great big story. It’s about the history of a small town and the way its residents respond in a crisis. It’s about construction standards, forest management, climate change, and human resilience. It’s about clearing 5,000 residents and 40,000 tourists out of harm’s way, and about whether we’re all going to have to get used to more such scares in the future. Here’s an excerpt, published last week in the National Post.
You can find Jasper on Fire, starting today, in most of your favourite independent booksellers, as well as the big chains. Mostly I wanted to shine a light on Matt Scace’s fine work because there aren’t a lot of 26-year-old reporters telling their story at 25,000-word length. That Scace took Ken Whyte’s call, and that he had the energy and imagination to take the Sutherland House publisher’s advice, speaks well of him. I suspect we’re only beginning to hear good work from Matt Scace.
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