From small-town Alberta, Curtis comes to Edmonton to obtain a teaching degree. There he forms a close friendship with his elderly, blind Aunt Harriet, considered a family pariah due to her eccentric enthusiasm for a lost world of artists and musicians.

When he begins reading aloud to Harriet the diary her intended husband Phillip kept before his death during World War One, an obsessed Curtis examines parallels to his own life: his desire to become a skilful artist and to find fulfilling love.

Timeless and essential, award-winning author Glen Huser's Burning the Night spans across generations and distance, traversing from Vancouver to Halifax, as it bears down on the history of Canadian painting and Curtis's awakening as a gay man. (From NeWest Press)

Glen Huser began his career as a teacher and school librarian in Edmonton before going on to work as a lecturer for many years at the University of Alberta and University of British Columbia.

His first novel, Grace Lake, was shortlisted for the 1992 W.H. Smith Books in Canada First Novel Award, and he is also the author of several books for young adult readers, including the Governor General's Award-winning Stitches and the GG finalist Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen. He lives in Vancouver.