on seeing LOVE at the Philadelphia International Airport for the first time

Today was the day. Long-awaited. More wonderful than imagined. With greatest thanks to Leah Douglas and Ursula Stuby of the Philadelphia International Airport Exhibitions Program for their glorious interpretation of Love: A Philadelphia Affair (Temple University Press), now on exhibit at Terminal D (10). How glorious it was to spend time with these two wonderful women, and to spend time as well with the Airport's delightful CEO, Chellie Cameron—learning about the plans for this airport and the future of travel in my beloved city.

With thanks to my father, for joining us, and to Bill, for taking the photographs you see here. I'll be forever honored by this.

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LOVE at the Philadelphia International Airport, a six-month exhibition now up in Terminal D

For the past many months, Leah Douglas and Ursula Stuby have been working with their incredible team to bring my LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair photographs and thoughts to life at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Today they unveiled the exhibition. It is up. It is real.

An exhibition like this one stills the whirligig thoughts that haunt me. It makes me stop, pause, be grateful for all the wanderings and ponderings that have led me here.

The exhibit is located in Terminal D, accessible by ticketed passengers and presented by the Exhibitions Program at the Philadelphia International Airport. It will be up through the Democratic Convention—its own brand of welcome committee to those who travel to and from our city.

I am, and always will be, grateful.

If you are en route and happening by—like my gorgeous friend Heather, who inspired my character Ada, in Going Over—this wall would love to greet you.

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Faculty Author. Two final LOVE signings.

For introducing me to students who change my life and for sharing my books in your store in such a gorgeous, prominent way, thank you, University of Pennsylvania and the Penn Bookstore. For snapping this photograph and sending it my way, thank you, Gary Kramer.

There are just two more LOVE signings on the radar. You are, of course, invited:

December 10, 2015, 12 - 2PM
Barnes and Noble LOVE signing
Rittenhouse Square
Philadelphia, PA

December 12, 2015, 2 PM
In-store signing
LOVE, etc.
Big Blue Marble Bookstore
551 Carpenter Lane
Philadelphia, PA

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LOVE is now an e-book and the top-ranked local travel book. But wait. How many others are there?

Often repeated, always true: I don't check out my own books on Amazon. I can't change the rankings, can't influence the comments. Anxiety fuels enough of my day. Why add, I wonder, with this?

But yesterday my friends at Temple University Press sent me this graphic with the news that LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair is now an e-book. They also sent the news that LOVE was (at least in that snatch of time) Amazon's top-selling local travel book.

Number 1, I thought. Number 1! I never get to be Number 1 (in anything).

Then, a nano-second later, reality crept in. How many local travel books can there actually be? Is LOVE Number 1, 2, 3, and 4?

With pride, with humility, I'm signing off.

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so grateful this morning for Serena's thoughts on LOVE

My great appreciation for Serena Agusto-Cox, for being the very first reader (beyond the team and the kind blurbers) of LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair. The very first.

What kindness lives in this busy mother, writer, reader, worker.

She has a special knack for finding those ineffable qualities I work toward and hope through in the pages of my books.

I don't want to preempt her. And so I link to her. With greatest thanks.

Savvy Verse & Wit, on LOVE, is here.

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Today is the day for LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair (on sale now)—and an update on upcoming talks and appearances

With thanks to Avery Rome and Kevin Ferris, who made a home for my stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer, with thanks to Temple University Press for binding these essays and photos into a single volume, and with thanks to some very special early readers—today is the day for Love: A Philadelphia Affair.

It's on sale now.

Over the next few weeks and months I'll be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Fairmount Water Works (in concert with other speakers), sharing the Free Library stage with Marciarose Shestack, returning to the beloved Radnor Memorial Library, teaching memoir to high school students in Bethlehem, PA, conducting an in-depth memoir workshop in Frenchtown, NJ, joining an exquisite panel of young adult writers, reviewers, and educators at Bank Street in New York, thinking out loud about home with dear friends Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, A.S. King, and Margo Rabb (at Penn), and participating in a variety of other talks and signings.

I'd love to see you along the way.

September 10, 2015, 10:30 AM
200th Anniversary of 
the Fairmount Water Works
Fairmount Water Works
Philadelphia, PA 
(open to public) 

September 21, 2015, all day
Handling the Truth/All School Read
Day-long workshop event
Moravian Academy
Bethlehem, PA
(private event) 

October 7, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Launch of Love: A Philadelphia Affair
with Marciarose Shestack
Free Library of Philadelphia
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA
(open to public)

October 15, 2015
My Philadelphia Stories at
The Philadelphia Rotary Club
Philadelphia Union League
Philadelphia, PA
(private event)

October 20, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Radnor Memorial Library
A Celebration of One Thing Stolen
and Love: A Philadelphia Affair
114 W. Wayne Avenue
Wayne, PA 19087
(open to public)

October 21, 2015
The Cultural Series at Kennedy House
1901 JFK Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA
(private event)

October 24, 2015
Panelist
BookFest @ Bank Street
Bank Street College of Education
610 West 112th Street
New York, NY  
(registration required)

October 25, 2015, 4 p.m.
Love: A Philadelphia Affair signing
Main Point Books
1041 W. Lancaster Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA
(open to public)

November 1, 2015, 2:00 PM
LOVE and FLOW
Women for Greater Philadelphia
Laurel Hill Mansion 
Philadelphia, PA
(private event)

November 15, 2015
Memoir Workshop 
In-store reception
The Rat
Organized by The Book Garden
Frenchtown, NJ
(registration required)

November 16, 2015
LOVE, TRUTH, and GOING OVER
Frenchtown, NJ-area high school
(private event)

December 3, 2015, 7 PM
LOVE signing
Chester County Books
West Chester, PA
(open to public)

December 5, 2015, noon
LOVE signing
Barnes and Noble
Devon, PA
(open to public)

March 1, 2016, 6:00 PM
Beltran Family Teaching Award Event
Featuring A.S. King, Margo Rabb, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto,
Penn students, and moi
Kelly Writers House
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
(open to public)
 
April 16, 2016
Little Flower Teen Writing Festival
Keynote Speaker
Little Flower Catholic High School for Teens
Philadelphia, PA 

May 22, 2016
Memoir Workshop
(details to be announced) 

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LOVE arrives (and Temple did such a good job)

In the midst of a busy afternoon, two copies of LOVE arrive in all their hardbound glory.

I have stopped.

I have paged through.

Temple University Press, you did an amazing job. The photos are rich, the paper is kind, the cover broadcasts our love for our city.

Thank you.

LOVE is now officially on sale.

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let's talk about LOVE: my video interview with Gary Kramer of Temple University Press

What a pleasant thing it was to travel to the city, to meet my friend and Temple Press publicist Gary Kramer for an extended stroll through favorite places, and to be introduced to Dan Marcel, a talented videographer, photographer, and filmmaker, who created two separate videos.

First is my interview with Gary, about the making of Love: A Philadelphia Affair

The second provides a partial city tour—particularly Locust Walk, 30th Street Station, and Schuylkill Banks—as well as brief readings from the book.

Love, which has been kindly endorsed by some of Philadelphia's great leaders, will launch in early September. On October 7, at 7:30, I'll be celebrating its release on the Free Library of Philadelphia stage with broadcast legend Marciarose Shestack. Please consider joining us there. 

Dan Marcel is a marvel—well-named, I've told him. You can find out more about his Marcelevision Media here; I highly recommend him. Please listen, too, to the original song, "Trailing Whispers," written and performed for the second production by Dan's mother, Susan.

Gary Kramer (who is not just Temple's publicist but a powerhouse film critic, a Salon.com writer, a Bryn Mawr Film Institute lecturer, among other things):. You made this happen and I could talk to you forever. Thank you.

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Launching LOVE at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Radnor Memorial Library, and Main Point Books

Love will be available in September from Temple University Press, in time for the Pope's Love is Our Mission visit to Philadelphia. I'll be launching the book officially at the Free Library of Philadelphia on October 7, then celebrating again at Radnor Memorial Library and Main Point Books.

It would make me happy to see you. 

Look for my story this weekend in the Philadelphia Inquirer's special Papal Visit issue.

October 7, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Launch of Love: A Philadelphia Affair
Free Library of Philadelphia
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA

October 20, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
Radnor Memorial Library
A Celebration of One Thing Stolen
and Love: A Philadelphia Affair
114 W. Wayne Avenue
Wayne, PA 19087

October 25, 2015, 4 p.m.
Love: A Philadelphia Affair signing
Main Point Books
1041 W. Lancaster Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA

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come and get some LOVE

Or: LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair. Coming soon.

(With thanks to Temple University Press, and special thanks to Ann-Marie Anderson)

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LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair (the cover reveal)

With enormous thanks to the Temple University Press team—Micah Kleit, Ann-Marie Anderson, Gary Kramer, Joan Vidal, Sara Cohen, Kate Nichols, Debby Smith, and Director Mary Rose Muccie—I share a first look at the cover art for Love: A Philadelphia Affair, my collection of Philadelphia-themed essays and photography, due out from the Press later this summer.

Southwest Philadelphia, Fairmount, Woodlands Cemetery, Wissahickon Creek, Old City, Memorial Hall, City Hall Tower, Locust Walk, South Philadelphia Sports Complex, Wayne Art Center, The Martha Street Hatchatory, Port Richmond, Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fairmount Water Works, 30th Street Station, Stone Harbor, Glenside, New Hope, Mural Arts, Eastern State, Bush Hill, Chanticleer Garden, Hawk Mountain, The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, The Schuylkill Banks, DanceSport Academy, Beach Haven, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Reading Terminal Market, Wilmington, DE, Stone Harbor, the Poconos, Hawk Mountain, Lancaster, PA—my memories of and reflections on these and other elements of this region have all been collected here, along with my black and white photography.

This book owes a huge debt to Kevin Ferris and Avery Rome of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who invited me to write, idiosyncratically and happily, for their pages.

I thank Amy Rennert, who ushered this project through all those terms I'd never understand on my own.

The Temple team has worked enormously hard to get the book out in time for the Pope's visit to our city; copies will be available by then. It will be here and near during the Democratic Convention. And it will serve as a companion book to Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, another Temple University production.

The official catalog copy, as penned by the great publicist, Gary Kramer:

-->

From the best-selling author of Flow, comes a love letter to the Philadelphia region, its places, and people

Love

A Philadelphia Affair

Beth Kephart

Philadelphia has been at the heart of many of award-winning author Beth Kephart’s books, but none more so than the affectionate collection, Love. This volume of personal essays and photographs celebrates the intersection of memory and place. Kephart writes lovingly, reflectively, about what Philadelphia means to her. She muses about her meanderings on SEPTA trains, spending hours among the armor in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and taking shelter at Independence Mall during a downpour.

In Love, Kephart shares her love of Reading Terminal Market at Thanksgiving, “This abundant, bristling market is, in November, the most unlonesome place around.” She waxes poetically about the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, the mustard in a Salumeria sandwich, and the coins slipped between the lips of Philbert the pig.

Kephart also extends her journeys to the suburbs of Glenside and Ardmore, and beyond, to Lancaster County, PA, Stone Harbor, NJ, and Wilmington, DE. What emerges is a valentine to the City of Brotherly Love and its environs. In Love, Philadelphia is “More than its icons, bigger than its tagline.”

Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of 20 books, including Going Over, Handling the Truth, Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, and Ghosts in the Garden. She has been nominated for a National Book Award, has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, and has won the national Speakeasy Poetry Prize. Kephart writes a monthly column on the intersection of memory and place for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune. She teaches memoir at the University of Pennsylvania and blogs daily at www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com

Philadelphia Region/General Interest/Urban Studies

October

112 pages, 39 halftones, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2”

Cloth ISBN 978-1-4399-1315-4 $24.50

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One Thing Stolen: A Booklist Star and a Goodreads Giveaway

Maybe the pre-publication months are the hardest months on writers. Best to shrug them off, develop distractions, think on next stories, next things, new recipes.

Earlier this week, through the nervous silence (and a search for tea for two guests at Penn), came news of a Booklist star for One Thing Stolen, as well as some very generous words from School Library Journal. I also learned that Chronicle will be sponsoring a Goodreads giveaway, beginning on March 1st. More on that can be found in the sidebar on my blog.

For now, I share highlights from the book's three early trade reviews:

Fans of Jandy Nelson’s dense, unique narratives will lose themselves in Kephart’s enigmatic, atmospheric, and beautifully written tale.  — Booklist, Starrred Review

“Kephart’s artful novel attests to the power of love and beauty to thrive even in the most devastating of circumstances.”—School Library Journal

"Kephart has crafted a testament to artistry and the adaptability of the human mind.  Set in Florence, Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, Kephart transports readers across the ocean from Philadelphia, Pa., to the cobbled streets of Italy." — Kirkus Reviews 

 In other publishing news: This kind review of Handling the Truth, in Assay Journal, by Renee D'Aoust.


And Love: A Philadelphia Affair (Temple University Press, August 2016) has an official cover and flap copy, which I will share here when the time is right.

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At the Reading Market in advance of Thanksgiving, in today's Philadelphia Inquirer

Oh, that Philadelphia Inquirer. Oh, Kevin Ferris and your design team. You make waking up every fourth Sunday such a pleasure. Thank you for the glorious celebration of the Reading Market in today's Inquirer. I loved writing this piece and taking those photographs. I love being a Philadelphian.

The story can be read in its entirety here.

This essay is one of three dozen that will appear in LOVE: A PHILADELPHIA AFFAIR, due out from Temple University Press next fall. More on that here.

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Philadelphia: A Love Affair (coming in Fall 2015 from Temple University Press)

A year from now, Temple University Press will release Love: A Philadelphia Affair, a collection of thirty-six essays on the intersection of memory and place. Thirty-eight of my black-and-white photographs will accompany the text.

Some twenty of those essays first appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer—pieces I was lucky enough to write for Inquirer editors Avery Rome and Kevin Ferris. Others have been written over the past few months for the book itself, taking me into and around the city on days of rain and sun to consider the streets, the architecture, the gardens, the sidewalks, the highs, the lows, and the communities that have played such a powerful role in the ways that I see, the books that I write, and the stories I teach. Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, Dangerous Neighbors (1876 Philadelphia), Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent (1871 Philadelphia), Small Damages, Handling the Truth, and even One Thing Stolen all reflect, in different ways, my love for this region and the people I have met here.

My great thanks to Micah Kleit, Ann Marie Anderson, and Gary Kramer at Temple University Press for helping me to see this dream through. My deep gratitude to Kevin Ferris and Avery Rome, who made my writing about this region such a pleasure. And huge appreciation to my agent Amy Rennert, who saw the details of this project through.

Micah and I wrapped the book up yesterday, from an editorial and photography perspective. I can't wait to hold this book in my hands, to be able to tell the world again and in new ways why I love where I live.

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A page from FLOW whisks across the face of the Water Works

FLOW Festival 2014 / Architectural Projection Model from Greenhouse Media on Vimeo.

When the good people of the Fairmount Water Works asked if they might borrow the first prose page from Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River for a festival finale, I said yes, of course. This movie (rendered here) was projected onto the entrance house facades of the Water Works building as night fell a few weeks ago. The words come from the prose poem, "Rising."

Credits:
Habithèque Inc.— Creative Direction
Greenhouse Media— Video and Editing
refreshtech and LUCE Group— Lighting
Blair Brothers Music— Original Soundscape
Beth Kephart—The poem "Rising" from her book Flow

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My Life's Work, My Actual Calling: Project FLOW at the Water Works and in the Inquirer

We reach a certain juncture in life and we realize that there's only so much time left to us now. We look back and ask, Have we done enough, loved enough, been enough? We look ahead and ask, What now?

I have always been real with myself; I have known the me within. What are my passions? Children and stories. What have I done? Raised a son I love more than any story can tell and written books that a handful of kind souls have read. I've been flat-out lucky to publish as many books as I have. I've been unimaginably blessed to be given the chance to take my stories into classrooms and into the open hearts of the young. I learn from them, again and again. Frankly, I love them.

Two Tuesdays ago I taught at a multi-week camp for young scientists and activists at the Fairmount Water Works. The camp is called Project FLOW. My privilege is to get the children thinking and writing about the soul of the river, akin to my own work in Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River (Temple University Press). Kevin Ferris and the Inquirer team made the moment even brighter by agreeing to publish my photo essay (which includes the work of the young people) about that morning.

The link to the story is now live and can be found here. A few more photos from last week's post are here.

In the meantime, below, all of the children of the 2014 Project FLOW. Here they are listening to Sashoya read from her brilliant river creation myth.

Finally, thanks to my friend, the poet Kate Northrop, whose poem "Things Are Disappearing Here" got us all started.

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Upcoming FLOW events, and a chance to win a copy of the new paperback

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

Beth Kephart

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.

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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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The paperback FLOW comes home

I had written here (with hope, with joy, with relief, even) about the pending paperback release of Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, a book that first appeared as a Temple University Press hardback in 2007.

But I hadn't seen the paperback myself until yesterday afternoon, when my first copy arrived in a manilla envelope, thanks to the press's Sara Jo Cohen.

It is just as shiny, sweet, high-quality, and true as the hardback of so many years ago.

And I'm just as happy.

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Paperback release/FLOW: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River

Today, Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, a book Temple University Press first released in 2007, arrives as an affordable ($14.95) paperback.

People often ask me what my favorite book is, and I refuse to imagine an answer; each book has, in its own way, spurred me, slayed me, invigorated me, quietly pleased me. I have fought and rooted for each one, and, believe me, I still do.

But Flow is one of those books that I really fought for—this retelling of a river's voice in her own words that I submitted to various presses without a positive response until finally I struck up a conversation with Micah Kleit at Temple University Press. When I called Micah several months after my submission certain that he, too, would pass, he corrected me. "We're not precisely sure what this book is, or how we will categorize it," he said. "But we're definitely going to do it."

And Temple did. Adam Levine, a beloved city archivist, helped me locate images of the river over time. Gary Kramer, Temple publicist, made sure that the book got noticed, and soon, also with the help of Marketing Director Ann-Marie Anderson, I found the book in the pages of most area publications, found myself in standing-room-only readings at the Free Library and the Water Works (among other places), and found myself engaged in an important dialogue about Philadelphia and its past and present.

A conversation I'm still having.

Flow is a book about hope and redemption, a book in which I imagined myself as a river, which is to say a woman caught in perpetual middle age, a woman once spectacular then sullied and abused, a woman finally on the verge of hope as visionaries worked to undo many centuries worth of environmental damage, a woman at long last in love. It is a book that emerged, in part, from conversations with city lights like Jerry Sweeney, CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust, who, along with Joseph Syrnick and others, engineered the enormously successful Schuylkill Banks.

Today, all these years later, Flow is the book that (and I am so grateful) many memoirists mention when researching the possibilities of the first-person voice. It is being adopted by middle schools as part of combined literature/environmental science programs (I will, for example, be visiting St. Albans Lower School next spring, on the campus of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, where the book is the required 7th grade read). Thanks to Karen Young, it has become integral to the programming of the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. And thanks to Kurt Zwikl and Laura Catalano of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Flow will be part of two keynote talks I'll give in the fall (at Montgomery County Community College and at Trinity Urban Life Center), as the city celebrates the Schuylkill as the Pennsylvania River of the Year.

Flow begins like this:

Rising

From within the fissure I rise, old as anything.

The gravel beneath me slides. Blueback herring and eel, alewife and shad muscle into my wide blue heart, and through. The smudged face of a wolf pools on my surface, and for that one instant I go blind.......

And when it was first released, some very kind people wrote these words about it:

“Kephart’s Flow is just a sumptuous book—haunting, poetic, lit up with gems of beauty and history.”— Buzz Bissinger

“Flow is seductive, thrilling, irresistible, life-changing. You cannot help but be swept away.” — Sy Montgomery

"Kephart is a master not only of descriptive memory, but of constructing an existential vocabulary. Thus the river is born, becomes aware, is besieged, comes to terms with abuse, half-wishes to be abandoned, and nearly loses hope." —Nathaniel Popkin, City Paper 

“Most autobiographies are a shameful, voyeuristic addiction of the public (thanks Paris, Monica L. and Jenna). But when a river—yes, a free flowing watercourse—releases an autobiography, it goes proudly on your coffee table to advertise your intelligent indie reading. Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River is chock full of memories and moments from the river's lifetime. Okay, so it was penned by Beth Kephart, a regional writer whose résumé overflows with awards. But the powerful words and imaginative musings come directly from the rises of the river, with retellings from poignant events dating back to the colonial era.” — AroundPhilly.com

From the length (I apologize!) of this blog post, I'm sure you can tell: I am beyond delighted that Flow will now be available as an affordable paperback, as soon as it moves out of the warehouse into stores and online venues.

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My river wins an award, and my FLOW heads toward a paperback edition

You know that I can't stop talking about her, dreaming about her, visiting her. And so here she is, my river, winner of the 2014 Pennsylvania River of the Year award, written of today, for North Philly Notes.

And (ladies and gentlemen), I have some news: FLOW will be relaunched this fall as a paperback, thanks to Temple University Press.

I could not be happier.

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