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.
Author Biography:
Donna Mulvenna is a horticulturalist, whose journey as a writer began when moved to the Amazon rainforest in French Guiana. For four years she wrote from a platform high in the canopy where the wildlife became her only company. Through her writing she hopes to give readers a glimpse of the wonder she discovered in the rainforest, reveal the profound effect it has on people's lives, and share why it is more important than ever before, to reconnect with the natural world. 'Nobody leaves the Amazon rainforest unchanged, ' says Donna, when explaining why she no longer feels the need to own a mobile phone, buy material possessions, or even wear shoes. When not writing or gardening, she can be found sitting under a tree reading or paddling along a river in a sprint canoe. Donna is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Writers, and the author of Happiness is Green, Wild Roots: Coming Alive in the French Amazon, and The Awe of Nature. She co-authored All Things Breathe Alike: A Wildlife Anthology, and is the co-editor of Tales of the River. "Happiness does find us," she says. "We just have to slow down and lighten our load a little. Only when we give ourselves space, do we discover the wonder and awe in our natural world, and in the process gain a true sense of who we are, why we are here, and where we are heading." Margi Prideaux is an author and international wildlife negotiator. She has written about wildlife in international politics and law almost every day for the past 27 years. As an international negotiator and independent academic, with a PhD in wildlife policy & law, her words have been tuned to inform policy audiences in more than 20 different international conservation processes. She has three books. Birdsong After the Storm, Global Environmental Governance, Civil Society and Wildlife, and has co-authored All Things Breathe Alike: A Wildlife Anthology. Along the way, her shorter musings have been published online at openDemocracy, Global Policy, Live Encounters, AlterNet, Wildlife Articles and Ecologist. She is a member of the Australian Society of Authors and also a Fellow with the International League of Conservation Writers. As well as writing, she serves as the Policy and Negotiations Director with Wild Migration, Vice-Chair of the CMS Scientific Council Aquatic Wild Meat Working Group, as a Research Associate with the Indo-Pacific Governance Research Centre, and as a Member of the IUCN WCPA Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group and the IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Area Taskforce.
