WATERLOO – Wilfrid Laurier University is proud to present a noon-hour reading by author Russell Wangersky, winner of the 2009 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. The event will take place from noon to 1 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 1 at Laurier’s Toronto office, located on the first floor of the Exchange Tower at 130 King St. W. (King and York streets).

Wangersky will discuss and read from his award-winning memoir, Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself.

A reception for Wangersky will take place the day before, Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Paul Martin Centre on the Waterloo campus of Wilfrid Laurier University.

Burning Down the House offers a crystal-clear portrait of a man who, through his career as a firefighter, becomes addicted to the rush of danger. In a narrative stacked with house fires, car wrecks and various other human tragedies, Wangersky portrays the emotional contingencies and lingering trauma that slowly begin to pull his life apart. This is a powerful book that illuminates the darker natures of those whom we trust with our lives.

“Burning Down the House is a memoir in the truest definition of the word: a book that explores memory as both a creative and destructive force,” says Tanis MacDonald, award juror and assistant professor in Laurier’s Department of English and Film Studies. “The ironic title captures the camaraderie and dark humour of the firehouse, and its cautionary subtitle warns of the psychological price of serving society as an emergency rescue worker whose skills are absolutely essential and absolutely impossible to leave behind when the shift is over.”

Wangersky lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and is the editorial page editor for the daily newspaper The Telegram. Burning Down the House is his second book.

The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction was launched in 1991 and is administered by Wilfrid Laurier University, the only university in Canada to bestow a nationally recognized literary award. The $10,000 award encourages and recognizes Canadian writers for a first or second work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale and/or significance.