Overview

In the springtime of 2012, the author completed a traverse of the entire Buffalo River in the Ozarks of Arkansas, during an extended dry weather season almost like none other. In the following years, he melded the account of that trip with the many stories he knew of the residents of the valley and his own personal experiences. The parched conditions of that spring, and the hardships it caused as he moved downriver became a metaphor for his own personal life struggles and his spiritual and religious transformation. All rivers are sacred but this book testifies to the power of a particular wild river, and the people who revere it, to offer understanding and solace when facing life's challenges and mysteries.

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9781737119227

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Beautifully written, with a powerful and important message. Jerry Dennis, Author of The Living Great Lakes and The Bird in the Waterfall. The writing is strong, the narrative is engaging and well-researched (and would appeal to almost anyone, I think, not just lovers of the Buffalo River). Dana Steward - author and writing teacher . Editor of the book A Rough Sort of Beauty; reflections on the Natural Heritage of Arkansas. Reading Trials & Tributaries is like going on a float with a trusted friend with a penchant for spinning yarns, as we might say here in the Ozarks. We meet Rex on the river courageously mining the grit and mystery of his own life, but doing so with such lightness and unselfconscious perspective that the story isn't really about him at all. It's about a beloved place-the Buffalo River valley-and the people who made and marked it in a century of enormous change in the United States. It's also about what makes and marks the human soul. Rex Robbins as river guide is an honest-to-goodness transparent eyeball, showing us a wilderness so clearly and cleanly that we end up looking straight at ourselves. Megan Blankenship, Winner of the 2015 Meridian Editor's Prize in Poetry and Et Alia Press's 2018 Neglected Histories of Arkansas Contest.

Beautifully written, with a powerful and important message. Jerry Dennis, Author of The Living Great Lakes and The Bird in the Waterfall. Reading Trials & Tributaries is like going on a float with a trusted friend with a penchant for spinning yarns, as we might say here in the Ozarks. We meet Rex on the river courageously mining the grit and mystery of his own life, but doing so with such lightness and unselfconscious perspective that the story isn't really about him at all. It's about a beloved place-the Buffalo River valley-and the people who made and marked it in a century of enormous change in the United States. It's also about what makes and marks the human soul. Rex Robbins as river guide is an honest-to-goodness transparent eyeball, showing us a wilderness so clearly and cleanly that we end up looking straight at ourselves. -Megan Blankenship, Winner of the 2015 Meridian Editor's Prize in Poetry and Et Alia Press's 2018 Neglected Histories of Arkansas Contest. Her work has appeared in Blackbird and The Missouri Review.

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