FARMINGTON – Hometown author Ryan Brod read a selection from his new book “Tributaries: Essays from Woods and Waters” at the Farmington library on Wednesday, February 14.
“The last time I was here I was in 2nd grade, I was in Mallett School,” Brod joked as he began his reading. He added that the time before that was when he was in kindergarten, and that very teacher, Mary Paradis, was present in the small crowd that attended the reading.
From his book, he read a short selection entitled “Boundary Lines.” He joked that he considered reading about snow, but it was so cold he wanted to read about a fishing trip with a friend in the Everglades.
“It’ll help you see about my relationship with him, and we can imagine being nice and warm.”
The story, presented in the present tense, related a time that he and his friend Rich, a fishing guide in the Everglades portion of the Middle Keys, were fishing for tarpon around Isla Morada.
Brod, a Smithfield native, attended the Mt. Blue school district from kindergarten through 2nd grade because his mother taught in the district, before switching to attend his more local Skowhegan school district starting in 3rd grade. He now teaches writing at the University of New England in Biddeford.
“It’s great talking about writing all the time,” said Brod. “In the process of navigating my own work, it’s great to work with young people who are trying.” As UNE is more of a math and science school, many of the students are unaccustomed to writing anything but academic papers, and find the more creative writing to be challenging but liberating for them, said Brod.
Although Brod didn’t find his passion for writing narrative non-fiction until college, the choice to write about the outdoors is natural for him. “I spent a lot of time outside [as a child] and I think writing was my way to catalog that,” he said.
The cover art for the book, created by an artist in Missouri whom he has never met but to whom he was connected via an interview with Andy Mill, depicts a freshly caught tarpon in the midst of being reeled in. “I think it’s a moment that’s so fast that you can’t really catch it, and it’s frozen in time on the cover of the book.”
Brod never set out to write a book, he said. “I just took a bunch of articles and stuff I’d written and dumped them into a Word document.” After much cutting and revision, he compiled them into a sequence that tells the story, not just of the outdoors, but of relationships as well, he said.
When one attendee asked about a second installment, he said he isn’t sure his next book will be on the same subject. “I feel like I need to explore different territory. This book is about relationships. I feel like exploring a different direction, something I’m not as comfortable with. I don’t really know what that will be yet.”
Find “Tributaries: Essays from Woods and Water” at islandportpress.com/tributaries or your preferred book distributor.
Learn more about Brod, and follow his works, at www.ryanbrod.com
