Yesterday the
Temple University Press fall catalog arrived and
Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, now released as a paperback all these years after it first appeared in hardback form, is featured among the pages.
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'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."
—Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer for the City and Friday Night Lights
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.
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
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