Confluence: Navigating the Personal & Political on Rivers of the New West

Podmore’s essays resemble Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau with an extra dose of social, racial and political analysis.
–ARIZONA DAILY SUN In the wake of his river-running mother’s death, Zak Podmore explores the healing power of wild places through a lens of grief and regeneration. Visceral, first-person narratives include a canoe crossing of the Colorado River delta during a rare release of water, a kayak sprint down a flash-flooding Little Colorado River, and a packraft trip on the Elwha River in Washington through the largest dam removal project in history.

Award-winning journalist and film producer ZAK PODMORE covers conservation issues, outdoor sports, and Utah politics. He is a Report for America fellow at the Salt Lake Tribune and editor-at-large for Canoe & Kayak magazine. His work appears in Outside, High Country News, Four Corners Free Press, and the Huffington Post. He lives in Bluff, Utah.