Viva Texas Rivers!: Adventures, Misadventures, and Glimpses of Nirvana along Our Storied Waterways
256
Viva Texas Rivers!: Adventures, Misadventures, and Glimpses of Nirvana along Our Storied Waterways
256Hardcover
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Overview
Many of Texas’ leading writers have had their hearts captured by a river, and they have created sparkling accounts of the waterways they love. Now, editors Steven L. Davis and Sam L. Pfiester have assembled the best of those works into a revelatory collection of diverse literary voices.
Ranging from the desert canyonlands of the Rio Grande to the swampy Big Thicket, from crystal clear Hill Country streams to the Red River’s treacherous quicksand, Viva Texas Rivers! showcases many classic writings along with brand new essays written for this volume. The literary nonfiction is complemented by flashes of poetry that brilliantly reflect these curving ribbons of light.
Authoritative and expertly edited, Viva Texas Rivers! offers shimmering accounts of hidden paradises, as well as searing exposés of abuse and despoliation. Yet even in the bleakest times, as these writers have found, Texas rivers can bestow a sacred grace —and unexpected redemption.
Viva Texas Rivers! brings you as close to the living nirvana of a Texas River as you can get without launching yourself into a canoe and following a great blue heron as it glides just above the breaking rapids, leading you around the bend as the river flows onward toward the best places in our hearts.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781623499808 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Texas A&M University Press |
| Publication date: | 02/11/2022 |
| Series: | Wittliff Collections Literary Series |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 1,045,917 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.30(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction Steven L. Davis Sam L. Pfiester xv
Invocation
Carmen Tafolla, This River Here 3
East Texas
The Sabine River
Gerald Duff, from Blue Sabine 9
Wes Ferguson, The Lost Sabine 10
Joe R. Lansdale, Where the River Flows 15
The Neches River
Richard M. Donovan, from Paddling the Wild Neches 20
Geraldine Ellis Watson, from Reflections on the Neches 20
Francis Edward Abernethy, The Flow of the Neches 21
Thad Sitton, The Enduring Neches 24
Village Creek
Gordon Baxter, Village Creek 29
The Trinity River
Mark Busby from The Trinity, a Memory, Spring 1930 33
T-Bone Walker, from "Trinity River Blues" 33
Gary Cartwright, Holy Trinity 34
Buffalo Bayou
John James Audubon, on Buffalo Bayou, 1837 39
Attica Locke, from Black Water Rising 39
Michael Berryhill, Buffalo Bayou: The Soul of a City 40
Central Texas
Elroy Bode, Along the River 51
The Brazos River
Ruthie Foster, from "Home" 52
John Graves, Drifting Down the Brazos 53
Walter McDonald, Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos 60
James Hoggard, November 61
Gardner Smith with Robert Reitz, The Cruise of the Red Turtle: A Brazos River Sketchbook 62
Chip Dameron, Drinking from the River 68
The Leon River
Leon Hale, The Bluff 69
W.K. Stratton, The Leon 71
The San Gabriel River
Alan Birkelbach, Walking the San Gabriel during the Drought 73
The Colorado River
Fray Gaspar José de Solís, on the Colorado River, 1768 75
Billy Lee Brammer, from The Gay Place 75
Margie Crisp, Colorado Bend 76
Carol Flake Chapman, The Texas River That Masquerades as a Lake 78
Brad Tyer, Going with the Flow 80
The Llano River
Bill Minutaglio, The Llano River 83
The Pedernales River
Deborah K. Wilson, Light on the Water 92
Daniel Oppenheimer, Angularities of a Creek: Observations from the Pedernales River Basin 96
Barton Springs
Stephen Harrigan, At the Source 99
The Guadalupe River
Butch Hancock, from "Banks of the Guadalupe" 101
Joe Nick Patoski, Guad Is Great: In Praise of the Guadalupe 102
Wayne H. McAlister, Paddling the Guadalupe: Canyon Lake to New Braunfels 107
James Hoggard, In the Rapids: Guadalupe River 113
The Blanco River
Wes Ferguson, The Blanco River 115
Naomi Shihab Nye, Little Blanco River 117
The Comal River
Isidro Félix de Espinosa, on the Comal River, 1716 118
Ferdinand von Roemer, from Texas 118
Patnarain, The Comal River 120
The San Marcos River
Stephen Harrigan, The Perfect River 122
The Sabinal River
Gardner Smith with Robert Reitz, The Clear Sabinal 132
The Frio River
Andrew Geyer, Things Water Whispers to Limestone 137
North Texas
The Red River
Robert Flynn, from North to Yesterday 143
Jan Reid, The Meanest River 144
The Washita River
Karla K. Morton, Washita River 153
The Wichita River
William Hauptman, The Falls Return to Wichita Falls 155
The Canadian River
John Erickson, from Through Time and the Valley 160
Joe Holley, The Canadian River 161
Interlude
Michael Barnes and Joe Starr, Half-Forgotten Rivers: The James and the Pease 169
West Texas
Río Grande / Río Bravo
Stephen Powers, on the Rio Grande, 1871 177
Pat Mora, from Encantado: Desert Monologues 177
Bobby Byrd and Sasha Pimentel, And the River Runs Through 178
Pat Mora, El Río Grande 179
Beatriz Terrazas, The River That Runs Through Me 180
Benjamín Alire Sáenz, The Ninth Dream: War (In The City In Which I Live) 183
Bobby Byrd, Early Morning, Front Porch-El Paso, Texas 186
Octavio Solis, Jeep in the Water 187
Pat Mora, A River of Women 189
Sasha von Oldershausen, Monsoon Season 191
Robert T. Hill, Running the Canons of the Rio Grande 196
Sandra Lynn, The Big River is Kept in a Stone Box 198
Edwin "Bud" Shrake, Rafting the Big Bend 200
The Pecos River
Ruth Galloway Shackleford, on the Pecos River, 1868 212
J. Frank Dobie, from Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest 212
Larry McMurtry, from In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas 213
Suzanne O'Bryan, Thoughts along the River 214
Andrew Sansom, The Pecos: River of Misery and Mythology 215
S.C. Gwynne, The Lost River of Divine Reincarnation 220
The Upper Colorado River
Margie Crisp, Headwaters of the Colorado and Colorado City 231
The Concho River
Elmer Kelton, from Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer 240
Larry D. Thomas, Concho River 241
The Devils River
Joe Nick Patoski, The Devils River: Undammed and Unforgiving 242
South Texas
The San Antonio River
Domingo Terán de los Rios, on the San Antonio River, 1691 251
Frederick Law Olmsted, from A Journey through Texas, or, A Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier 251
Carmen Tafolla, River Music 252
John Phillip Santos, The Mythic Narrative of San Pedro Creek 254
Alexis Harte, San Antonio: A City Guided by Its River 257
Sandra Cisneros, My Home along the San Antonio River 261
The Lower Guadalupe River
Clayton Maxwell, A Return to the River 263
Michael Berryhill, Where the River Meets the Bay 270
The Nueces River
Alonso de León, on the Nueces River, 1689 274
Paulette Jiles, from Simon the Fiddler: A Novel 274
William Jack Sibley, The Nueces River 275
The Lower Río Grande
Emmy Pérez, from With the River on Our Face 282
David Bowles, The Refuge on the Ranch 282
Norma Elia Cantú, Hablando y Sonando / Talking Dreaming 283
Keith Bowden, The Tecate Journals 289
Jan Seale, The Roma Bluffs: Still Life with Folk 293
David Bowles, Border Kid 295
Domingo Martinez, The Betrayal 296
Jan Reid, The End of the River 301
Américo Paredes, El Río Bravo / The Río Grande 303
Benediction
Pat Mora, The River 307
Afterword: The State of Texas Rivers Today Andrew Sansom 309
Appendix: River Advocacy Groups 311
Acknowledgments 315