Back Cast: Fly-Fishing and Other Such Matters - Softcover

Jeff Metcalf (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607816121 ISBN 13: 9781607816126

Publisher: The University of Utah Press, 2018

Synopsis

A storyteller and avid fly fisherman, Jeff Metcalf is, for compelling personal reasons, an enhanced observer of the human condition, who finds himself often in the streams of the American West. Not only rivers run through his essays, his cancer does too. But so do camaraderie, adventures, reveling in nature and outdoor devotions, and the sheer bliss of focused engagement with the fish and the cast. Metcalf’s keenly observed companions are river guides, small-town locals, academics, and other city folk, all like him among those who run to the river for solace and joy.

These essays are much more than fish stories; they reveal the community and communion of fishing and the bonds to place the author nurtured through it. Whether he recalls carousing and tale-swapping with friends or excellence found through the challenge of the cast, Metcalf’s words, sometimes roiling and turbulent, sometimes calm and reflective, like a western river, vividly convey the pull of the steelhead and the fight for survival. Whether or not you fish, Metcalf’s sharp-eyed, open and honest look at life will draw you in.

About this title

About the Author

Jeff Metcalf is a professor of English at the University of Utah and has been the recipient of numerous awards. His fiction and essays have appeared in local and national magazines and his most recent play, A Slight Discomfort, has been widely staged in both the United States and Europe. His first collection of essays, Requiem for the Living, was the winner of the 2012 Utah Division of Arts and Museums Original Writing Competition.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Utah Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1607816121
• ISBN 13: 9781607816126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176