Upcoming FLOW events, and a chance to win a copy of the new paperback
Friday, June 20, 2014
Later this year, on July 15th, I'll be with my dear friends at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, leading a river-oriented writing workshop. On September 29, I'll be joining Stephen Fried and Neal Bascomb at the Pennsylvania Library Convention, for a nonfiction panel; Flow will be part of that story. On October 14 and 16, I'll be giving two keynote addresses in honor of the Schuylkill's place as 2014 River of the Year, at Montgomery County Community College and Trinity Urban Life Center, thanks to my friends at Schuylkill River Heritage Area. Next year, in April, I'll be traveling to Washington DC, to meet the 7th and 8th graders of St. Albans Lower School, where Flow is the required summer read, and, later, to Pentagon City, VA, to conduct a writing workshop (Flow and Handling the Truth inspired) for New Directions in Writing (more here). Other events are in the making.
In celebration of this paperback dream fulfilled, I would like to extend an invitation to you. Write, in the comment box here, a favorite memory of a river—any river, any state. Your comment doesn't have to be long. It just has to mean something. Three of you who comment here (and who live in the United States) will win a paperback copy of Flow. The contest ends June 27th.
The Temple University catalog page, in full:
Flow:
The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River
Listen to a podcast, of Beth Kephart's keynote address at the Bank Street College of Education, 9 November 2013.Beth Kephart
"Beth Kephart's Flow is just a sumptuous book — haunting, poetic, lit up with gems of beauty and history. We engorge ourselves on materialism. The legacy of our generation will be our consumerism. But Flow and its exquisite evocation of the Schuylkill River reminds us that nature still trumps everything. Which makes the book all the more beautiful and all the more rare."The Schuylkill River — the name in Dutch means "hidden creek" — courses many miles, turning through Philadelphia before it yields to the Delaware. "I am this wide. I am this deep. A tad voluptuous, but only in places," writes Beth Kephart, capturing the voice of this natural resource in Flow.
—Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer for the City and Friday Night Lights
An award-winning author, Kephart's elegant, impressionistic story of the Schuylkill navigates the beating heart of this magnificent water source. Readers are invited to flow through time-from the colonial era and Ben Franklin's death through episodes of Yellow Fever and the Winter of 1872, when the river froze over-to the present day. Readers will feel the silt of the Schuylkill's banks, swim with its perch and catfish, and cruise-or scull-downstream, from Reading to Valley Forge to the Water Works outside center city.
Flow's lush narrative is peppered with lovely, black and white photographs and illustrations depicting the river's history, its people, and its gorgeous vistas. Written with wisdom and with awe for one of the oldest friends of all Philadelphians, Flow is a perfect book for reading while the ice melts, and for slipping in your bag for your own visit to the Schuylkill.
Reviews
"Only a poet and writer of Beth Kephart's lyric talent could give us a voice worthy of the great Schuylkill River. We have waited eons to hear the story she (and the river is a 'she') tells us, and Flow is worth the wait: Here is a song enriched with falling leaves and ascending souls; a poem composed of time and wind, fish and flotsam; and a riveting narrative of some of America's greatest heroes as well as some of our history's worst mistakes. Flow is seductive, thrilling, irresistible, life-changing. You cannot help but be swept away."
—Sy Montgomery, author of The Journey of the Pink Dolphins and The Good, Good Pig
"Kephart...provides an intimate meditation on the Schuylkill’s story."
—Philadelphia Style
"In this autobiographical treatment, Kephart uses short lyrical essays and black-and-white photographs to let the Schuylkill River recount its life, it’s origin in creation and geography, its place in history, the famous personalities who graced its shores and crossed its water and its place in the hearts of Philadelphians who rely on it for water, recreation and solace."
—The Patriot-News
"Flow is a poetic meditation on the Schuylkill River’s place in Philadelphia’s history, transporting you back in time."
—Filmbill
"In her new book, Devon’s Beth Kephart poeticizes Philadelphia through the keen observations of its eldest resident, the Schuylkill River, which has long served as the city’s source of water, power, industry, and beauty. Flow adapts the river’s motion, winding past local events and retelling them with an imaginative and poignant voice."
—Main Line Today
"Kephart's well-researched essays provide historical nuance...a prescient contemporary account of the city's history. But it is the narrative poetry, in the taut female voice of the river, which makes this a book to descend into, slowly, with all senses at the ready....Kephart is a master not only of descriptive memory, but of constructing an existential vocabulary."
—The Philadelphia City Paper
"[I]t goes proudly on your coffee table to advertise your intelligent indie reading."
—aroundphilly.com
"I’ll see the Schuylkill differently on my ride home tonight, and maybe it’ll be a closer friend now."
—UWISHUNU
"From the first footsteps of Native Americans, to wars, progress, industrialization, and beyond, the river serves up commentary with a mix of plain-spoken facts, dramatic embellishments and historical illustrations. The result is an engrossing and unusual take on the area."
—Arrive
"An admirer transforms her glimpses of the life of the Schuylkill — once wild then pressed into human service, and now rediscovered for its remnant beauty— into spare prose that is often moving, whether or not you live in Philly."
—Orion
"In this autobiographical treatment, Kephart uses short lyrical essays and black-and-white photographs to let the Schuylkill River recount its life, its origin in creation and geography, it’s place in history, the famous personalities who graced its shores and crossed its water and its place in the hearts of Philadelphians who rely on it for water, recreation and solace."
—The Patriot-News
"I can’t imagine a more beautiful book about a river than Flow."
—University City Review
“Kephart gives the Schuylkill a voice, a memory, a melancholic sensibility. She has given us a finely-tuned and moving work of art, an exquisite book of loss and wanting. In 76 narrative poems and nearly as many short historical essays, Kephart returns the ‘hidden river’ to its place in our hearts.”
—Context
"What a gem!... I could not have asked for a more beautifully written, poetic and personal story of the Schuylkill River.... You may want to read this during the summer, when you can relax and absorb its powerful tale."
—St. Albans Lower School blog
8 comments:
I have almost always lived near rivers, and a river is a central presence--almost a character in its own right--in my first novel.
One afternoon, I sat by the Snake River in Idaho and just watched pelicans swim by. It was one of the few times in my life when I took the time to just sit and do nothing but watch, totally at peace.
Here is a song for you: "Find the River," by REM.
No need to enter me, but I do have memories of rivers.
The Blackstone River in Millbury, Mass., was always part of my memory from my brother kicking my soccer ball over the fence in the backyard and watching it float away toward Rhode Island, or the one time we saw a small VW bug floating down the river one spring after an accident on the bridge up river sent the car into her rapids -- that spring there had been so much rain. The river had been the center of an industrial mill town, filled to the brim with chemicals and waste, but she's cleaner, and I'd like to think calmer than she was those years ago.
Hudson River
Raised and educated in New York City, it was vital to retreat to a patch of nature.
Monday through Friday, I worked in a tall office building with views of the Statute of Liberty to the George Washington bridge. I did not take "coffee breaks; instead I took "river breaks", daydreaming while looking at the river.
I lived two long blocks from the Hudson River. On weekends I walked to a pier, sat on a bench and watched the movement of the water. Lorraine
Lorraine, how do I reach you, to send on a copy of FLOW? And Jenn, your address? Thank you for these glorious memories (you, too, Serena).
I have many fond river memories. As, a pre-teen, the Missouri River was the "star player" in the one and only family camping trip my family ever took together. With my own young (toddler/pre-school age)children, there were walks down the hill from our house to "our" beach on the banks of the Roaring Fork River, in Colorado, for hours of picnicking, sand-playing, and rock throwing fun. In later years, while living in Idaho, we enjoyed many family river excursions with our boat. We'd head either south to the Snake River,(of which which Jennifer previously spoke,)or north to the St Joe River, two very different rivers but each with its own personality and glorious beauty. Rivers talk. I love to listen. Flow has been one of your books I have most wanted to read and yet still have not. I am so happy to know it is finding the breath of new life in paperback form. Great news, Beth. Congratulations! Thanks for the fun giveaway.
I have many fond river memories. As, a pre-teen, the Missouri River was the "star player" in the one and only family camping trip my family ever took together. With my own young (toddler/pre-school age)children, there were walks down the hill from our house to "our" beach on the banks of the Roaring Fork River, in Colorado, for hours of picnicking, sand-playing, and rock throwing fun. In later years, while living in Idaho, we enjoyed many family river excursions with our boat. We'd head either south to the Snake River,(of which which Jennifer previously spoke,)or north to the St Joe River, two very different rivers but each with its own personality and glorious beauty. Rivers talk. I love to listen. Flow has been one of your books I have most wanted to read and yet still have not. I am so happy to know it is finding the breath of new life in paperback form. Great news, Beth. Congratulations! Thanks for the fun giveaway.
Lorraine, if you are reading this again, please send me your address one more time. I was away and lost emails during that time.
I will send again! Thanks! Lorraine
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