Tales from the River

This collection of river literature compiles both classic and cutting-edge essays of twenty-one writers who draw on their wisdom, compassion, and ecological consciousness to create an original and inspiring collection borne from their unique connection with the natural world.

Tales from the River features original writing by award winning authors including Anthony Birch, author of Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, and cutting-edge prose by Kathleen Dean Moore best known for award-winning books about our cultural and spiritual relation to wet, wild places, and fresh new voices from across the globe.

This connection is shared in stories where, being so focused on the complexities of the river ahead makes the rest of the world completely disappear, and the smoke of a driftwood fire floats in air too thick to carry any sound but the rushing of the river. A canoe is tossed aside and rests akimbo with an aspen branch penetrating its hull, white fog flows down a river as if even the air runs to the sea, and an Aboriginal ‘slum kid’ steals a bike so he can visit a river rich in eucalypt trees that ‘old blackfellas’ had used to make bark canoes, scar trees.

Like Eric Sevareid's Canoeing with the Cree, Ernest Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River, and Edward Abbey's Down the River, the anthology promises glimpses into history, adventure and magic, and reminds us that the crystal-clear rivers of our childhoods are the way rivers are meant to be.

Editors Donna Mulvenna and Margi Prideaux share a passion for wild spaces as portrayed in the anthology’s dramatic range of environmental writing which offers an insight into rivers across the world, reflected by the varied perspectives of field biologists, environmentalists, wilderness guides, academics, writers, and naturalists.

Foreword, Erik Solheim, Executive Director, UN Environment

Preface, Donna Mulvenna and Margi Prideaux

Introduction
 

POLAR FRESHWATER

Memories of Hockley Lake, Ron Melchiore

TEMPERATE UPLAND RIVERS

Growing Up With Rivers, Tim Palmer

Seven Rivers, Rob Carney

TEMPERATE COASTAL RIVERS

The Wild Atnarko River, Mary Woodbury

Let the River Run, Wes Ferguson

Kayaking Chile's Pascua River, Diana Saverin

Prodigal River, Rebecca Lawton

Paddling the Sewershed, Brice Particelli

When a River is a Person, Gary Wockner

Catfish Bend, Lisa Knopp

Upo Wetlands to Doyo Islet, Louise Duff

TEMPERATE FLOODPLAIN RIVERS

Three Water Stories, Anthony Birch

The Willamette, Kathleen Dean Moore

River of the Past, Conor Mihell

The Loner, James Roberts

Three Rivers, Karen Lloyd

Musical Life, Margi Prideaux

TROPICAL UPLAND RIVERS

Wilder Rivers, Donna Mulvenna

TROPICAL FLOODPLAIN RIVERS

On the Negro River, José Truda Palazzo, Jr.

Deafened by Nature, Jessica Groenendijk

The Mother River of India, Mariellen Ward

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Contributing Authors

Rivers are Imperilled

An Invitation from the Publisher