I love to write about fly fishing, so it was especially gratifying to learn that one of my essays was chosen as a finalist for the 2019 Traver Award, presented by the American Museum of Fly Fishing and the John Voelker Foundation.
This contest recognizes original stories or essays that demonstrate high literary values and embody a love of fly fishing, as well as respect for the sport and the natural world. The foundation describes it as the most prestigious writing award in the fly fishing community. Click to learn more and read the press release about this year’s winning entries. My name is listed there as one of the ten finalists!
Where Love and Rivers Intersect
My entry into this competition was an essay that tells the story of my marriage, which sprang from a blind date with a man who has no interest in fly fishing. Despite this, over the course of our relationship he has come to understand not only the importance of this sport in my life, but also its power to heal the heart.
This story has yet to be published, but I’m currently shopping it around. If you’re an editor or publisher, or you know someone who might be interested in printing it, please get in touch with me. People who’ve read this essay love it, I think because it touches on more than fishing. It’s about the universal struggle to find love. It’s also about finding yourself.
Writing About Fly Fishing
You can read some of my writing about fly fishing and discover more about my freelance services here on my Storycatcher Creative website. I plan to do much more writing and fishing — and writing about fishing — in the coming year. Meanwhile, I’m going to start with a little goal setting:
Goal #1 for next year: win the Traver Award.
Goal #2: catch a lot of fish.
Not necessarily in that order.
Check back next September to see how I’ve done! And keep visiting this site in the meantime as I share more of my writing about fly fishing and life’s other adventures.