Oof, once again, it’s been longer than I intended. And so I am a bit backlogged with updates.
The big news is that today marks the paperback release of The Great River. And that is the moment that, as my friend Emma Eisenberg puts it, a book’s “real life” begins. Like many readers, I prefer buying paperbacks, not just because they’re cheaper but because they’re easy to handle.
Emma points out, though, that after a year in hardback, the publisher also has settled on how they want to present the book to the world. In my case, they retained the lovely Fisk map, but added the stirring fact that the book was a “national bestseller.”1 They’ve showcased the fact that the book was discussed in varied, important publications—Outside and the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. It’s a reminder that this book did everything I dreamed might be possible, and more.
I don’t have any major events planned to coincide with the paperback release, mostly because I’ve got myself way too busy. (That said, if you’d like to have me read or talk somewhere, let me know; maybe we can find a way.) The book is not the only thing I’ve got in print this summer: a wave of magazine stories is now beginning to hit, which is reminding me about the complexities of producing in print.
For The Nature Conservancy magazine, for example, I’ve got a short feature on the Colorado River. The magazine sent me all the way to Mexico to see the mouth of the river—mostly a desert now—and yet, due to space constraints, that whole section had to be cut. For Bicycling, I’ve got a long feature about the town of Oakridge, Oregon, which I think offers a parable about how climate-driven weather is undercutting the recreational economy. (The magazine is on newsstands now; I’m hoping they’ll make the feature accessible soon. Also on newsstands is the new issue of Inc., with my story about seafood fraud in Mississippi.2) And then in a few weeks, the new issue of Smithsonian will feature my new story on Louisiana redfish. These two stories have been in the queue for over a year. But print has its pleasures, too: I’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks the kind of perfectionism that comes from looking, again and again, at a page proof.
And then, of course, there is Southlands, my own print magazine: the drafts are starting to come in; the editing has begun. You may get another email from me later this week, when I send out the official press release about the magazine. It’s going to be fun to see this world of print from another side…
Spring & Summer Stories
The Nature Conservancy: “A River Runs Through Us”
Bicycling: “Through the Fires”
Gravy/FERN: “Oh Snapper! Mislabeled Mississippi Seafood”
Inc./FERN: “Caught! How a Mississippi Restaurant Became the Poster Child for a New Kind of Fraud”
Recent Interviews
Resilient Future Podcast: “Engineering, History, and the Mississippi River”
Relevant or Irrelevant: “Is This ‘Age of the Delta’ Coming to an End?” (don’t miss the bonus segment)
In a Mississippi Minute with Steve Azar
It was, for one week, on the extended bestseller list for independent bookstores. My paperback cover is, for me, a lesson in seizing one’s accomplishments and running with them, embracing describing yourself in the most flattering terms.
This story was a partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, which has made the full version available. We also produced an audio version with the podcast Gravy.