River Songs is rich with bracing, authentic, generous stories--writing that revels in language and spirit. Avoiding most of fly fishing’s clichés--the romantic elegies, the Moby-Dick-like conquests, the play-by-play detailing a "victory" over a fish-- Steve Duda instead offers pieces that breathe lived experience, reveal vulnerabilities, and convey a broad perspective of what it means to have "a long run with a tight crew." Duda is interested in what has been learned out there on the river: what is it about this "ridiculous activity" that connects us to this planet, makes us human, gives us hope? River Songs focuses on the in-between moments and the unexpected revelations--awe, fear, frustration, doubt, joy--that are as much a part of fishing as tying knots and chucking flies. Readers ride along with Duda in battered pickup trucks, fish "between jobs," look longingly at unfished famous rivers while touring with a country-punk band, and wonder how a fishing trip led to getting a tooth pulled while being surrounded by trash-talking friends. They will find beauty, discovery, heartbreak, good dogs, and the wonder of nature within the expanse of Northwest landscapes and beyond. Illustrated by Matthew DeLorme; 6x8 inches, 192 pgs.
Reviews
Flyfishing is Steve Duda’s portal to the natural world. His stories are down-to-earth, passionate, and overflowing with wonder. River Songs is scorchingly well written. -- Peter Kaminsky, author of Catch of a Lifetime
Duda's tales are far more than fishing stories. They are the fatty spoils of in-between moments that only someone as unintentionally soaked in the cosmos as Duda could capture. I'm grateful for each of his experiences, in which he holds the fleeting, strange psalms long enough to translate them for mortals like me to cherish. -- Hilary Hutcheson, outfitter and guide
A wonderfully spirited case for one of the great and enduring sports. -- David Coggins, author of The Believer: A Year in the Fly Fishing Life
Like a fireside raconteur plucking his banjo beside your favorite stream, Steve Duda plays notes that ring true. ‘Here’s to ugly flies that are beautiful,’ he says, in remembrance of a long-lost fishing buddy, and we feel the joy and the pain. His river songs about the angling life―about living―evoke a deep yearning for connection, the regret of missed opportunity, and an impatience with cheap illumination. He finds humor, absurdity, and sorrow in both the magical and the mundane. Duda’s is a sometimes gruff, sometimes bemused, but always singular voice that cuts through the discordant noise of our times. -- Langdon Cook, author of Upstream
It would be easy to say that River Songs is simply a very good book about fly fishing. But it’s elevated to something more because Steve Duda has his sights on bigger game, namely the passage of time, and its intimate twin, mortality. More specifically, how we choose to spend the former, given the inevitability of the latter. The author’s choice is on the water with fly rod in hand, and, fortunately for us, at his keyboard. Duda writes with ferocious honesty and breathtaking intensity. The stories here are a lot like the author himself―authentic, soulful, earthy, and, beneath a sometimes-crusty exterior, filled with love. There are sweet melodies in River Songs, to be sure, but it’s the slightly subversive, punk-rock ethic that lends satisfying grit to all that beauty. This is a book that helps us keep time through a life of fly fishing, and more importantly, what to make of it. -- Dylan Tomine, author of Headwaters and Closer to the Ground
Reading River Songs broke my heart. It may have been the list of a hundred smells, in alphabetical order, a lifelong fisher is born to―starting with armpit and galloping through dog breath and fryer grease to river mist and wool. It’s not that I will never have the years to fish the rivers and salt this man has fished―from the bone flats in the Bahamas and Belize to the cold streams of Patagonia, Oregon, Montana, B.C.―or learn to read the water, the wind, the season, the trout, as he does; or get to free a swallow from a tiny caddis fly, or swap outlandish stories over cups of Argentinian maté with characters straight out of the stories of Maclean and Jim Harrison . . . it is that reading River Songs reminded me why I am here on this earth: To listen carefully to the sound of the creek in her bed, to love with an open heart, to live a passionate life worthy of a good story. Or two. Thank you, Steve Duda. Sometimes we need to be reminded. -- Peter Heller, author of The Dog Stars, The River, and Burn
Good luck finding a better wordsmith for all things rivers and fish. -- Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate, adventurer, environmental journalist, and filmmaker
What strikes me most about these inviting and enjoyable stories is their authenticity. Duda writes―and I mean this in the best way―like he has dirt under his fingernails -- Monte Burke, author of Lords of the Fly and Saban
Fly-fishing has changed since we baby boomers were young and we’re not always happy about it, so it was a relief to open Steve Duda’s River Songs and find an entirely recognizable world where all the familiar traditions are alive and well, including that of compelling stories told with skill and intelligence. -- John Gierach, author of Trout Bum and All the Time in the World
As full of music and movement as a river, Steve Duda's "River Songs" is for the soul of every fly-fisher. The still-water of this generous collection; contemplation. The punk-rock rapids; a rollicking good time. The nicks and dings, the smooth keel: like the best writing of all, there are stories, images, and metaphors here that will carry you away and make your life richer for the journey. -- Cameron Keller Scott, author of Watershed
You won’t forget these stories. They’ll make you think about your relationship with fishing and perhaps make you look at it in a different way. -- Pete Tyjas ― Fly Culture Magazine
Steve Duda, in River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing, his first collection of essays, reminds us with attentive care to language and gloriously boisterous storytelling, why we keep coming back to rivers... -- Michael Garrigan ― Flyfisherman Magazine
Steve Duda is a poet, an essayist, and a reporter. But mostly, he is simply a fantastic storyteller. ― The Drake Magazine
In his first book, Duda, a Seattle writer, editor, and producer, offers a delightful experience for nature lovers and anglers. His clear, concise, funny, and confident writing suggests the wit and insight of such classic fishing writers as Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, and John Gierach as well as the gonzo and hell-for-leather sensibilities of Hunter Thompson and Outside magazine’s Tim Cahill. -- John Rowen ― Booklist
...this is the kind of writing―the kind of flyfishing writing, especially―that you simply will not find anywhere else, for the simple reason that no one can tell a story the way that Steve Duda tells a story. Whether built on observation or an idea, whether springing from an experience or simply a hunch as to how the world works behind the scenes, they are stories that teem with the titular “wonder.” It’s been a long time coming, but this debut collection was well worth the wait. -- Jason Rolfe ― The Fly Fish Journal
About the Author
Steve Duda is a writer, editor, and producer whose work in film, magazines, books, and live appearances has shaped the voice of fly fishing for over three decades. He is the former editor of The Flyfish Journal and a founding editor at Boise Weekly. Steve’s cultural writing has been featured in Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, Seattle Weekly, MTV, San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Fretboard Journal, and many others. Currently, Steve is Head of Fish Tales at Patagonia, guiding the brand’s fly fish activism and storytelling through film, video, web, social media, and more. He lives in Seattle with his partner and a semi-feral feline/raccoon hybrid.
