Barely a week has gone by and we’re already gearing up for the next Writers on the Fly reading on February 12th. A full line up of readers and artists will be up next week.
Before we get to that, though, I wanted to take a minute to recognize the stellar readers we had last week, post a couple of pictures (there will be more coming!), and say a few words about the event.
First off–what a turn out. I’m fairly certain we had well over 50 people in the shop for the evening. The show of interest and support was remarkable, and right from the get go it was more than I could have hoped for. West Seattle Brewery got to work pouring pints, and folks started picking up raffle tickets for Pat’s flies.
Thanks to Pat’s flies and everyone’s excitement over the raffle tickets, we raised over $300 for the Wild Steelhead Coalition, a donation that will go to support WSC’s vital work in restoring and preserving wild steelhead all along the West coast.
Mike McCoy took the podium first and shared a bit of poetry. Mike’s reflective approach to fishing, and his keen observations of our place in the natural world, were evident in each line he read. His final poem of the evening explored the interconnectedness we share as anglers and adventurers trudging along the waterways we love.
Jon Tobey, of Gointothelight.wordpress.com, was up next. Jon shared reflections on the writing process and how that plays into his fly fishing related work. He read an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Michael Kilkenny’s Wake, and gave the crowd a taste of some of his other genre pieces.
Steve Duda finished the inaugural Writers on the Fly off with three pieces that have been published in The Flyfish Journal, where Steve is editor. Though “The Post-Capital Wilderness” and “Pressure Drop” drew plenty of good laughs and knowing nods, it was Steve’s moving story of an accidental encounter with a swallow on the Yakima river that moved the house to enrapt silence that night.
What is evident after this first reading is: 1) There is a depth and diversity of creativity in the fly fishing world that often feels like it is only just being hinted at and, 2) there is a serious contingent of folks who are eager and excited for this stuff. Not just eager for the film tours and fishing shows. But for art, for stories, for community with folks who could care less about the latest industry buzz or “epic” trip, but instead want to hear about the infinite number of reasons why we fish. Each of our readers on January 8th gave us a bit of that–they showed us why they fish, and why fishing is important enough that they’ll take the time to sit down and write a bit about it. And that, in the end, is the point of this whole gig.
Thanks to everyone who came. I’ll see you next time.