Steve Duda is an inimitable storyteller. His current e-book, River Songs: Moments of Wild Marvel in Fly Fishing, showcases a set of essays written by Steve over the previous twenty years, mixed with a smattering of latest materials. It’s an anthology of labor that John Gierach describes as “compelling tales instructed with ability and intelligence.”
All through River Songs, it’s clear that Steve—who edited The Flyfish Journal earlier than turning into Head of Fish Tales for Patagonia—holds himself to the identical guidelines he held his writers to as an editor: Don’t brag concerning the loopy belongings you’ve finished; preserve your useless household and buddies out of the plot; and “for the love of God, strive to not be the hero of your individual story.”
As each a participant in and an observer of fly-fishing literature for many years, Steve is reverent of the sphere’s previous, pleased with its current, and optimistic about its future. “To be an awesome author, you have to write fantastically about horrible issues,” he says. “As fly fishing writers, we’re buddies with disappointment. We fail greater than we succeed. There are horrible issues we confront in our writing.”
“I don’t know why folks like to examine fly fishing a lot,” Steve says. “Maybe as a result of we stock it so near our coronary heart and we’ve got such intimate and fond recollections of not simply the act however all the pieces that surrounds the act. Our buddies, the settings, and all these issues that mix to make recollections we stock with us once we take into consideration fly fishing.”
The composer Claude Debussy as soon as stated music is not only within the notes, however within the silence between the notes. Knowledgeable musician for a few years, music is usually a pillar of–or a catalyst for–Steve’s tales. And in keeping with Debussy’s sharp perception, the ability in Steve’s phrases—whether or not written or spoken—usually comes from the golden silence between them.
Within the eighth episode of the Studying the Water podcast, “Issues Are About to Get Even Higher,” Steve joins host Tim Schulz to share insights concerning the previous, current, and way forward for fly-fishing literature, the parts of a robust fishing story, his musical profession, and he reads from his essay, “Stress Drop.”
“Fly fishing teaches us just a few issues about just a few issues,” Steve writes as his e-book’s opening. And so, too, do the folks like Steve who write about it.
You possibly can take heed to the complete dialogue with Steve Duda in Episode 8 of the Studying the Water podcast, out there via Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.
