TRIBUTARIES: Author Interview- Lou Wentz

Author Interview

 

Coast Fork Press’ Daisy Steiner, Director of Marketing, interviews Lou Wentz, author of Tributaries: Fly-fishing Sojourns to the Less Traveled Streams.

 

CFP: Welcome and thank you for taking the time today.

LW: The pleasure is mine.

CFP: So let’s start by you telling us a little about yourself and your writing.

LW: I started writing about thirty years ago, soon after my fly-fishing transformed from a fascination to a passion. I have to say I was most influenced by Nick Lyons, who held the Seasonable Angler column on the back pages of Fly Fisherman magazine for many years. I squired away most of the stories while I sought publication in periodicals. I became a regular contributor to Rural Roads, a rural weekly out of Minnesota until it folded in the mid-2000s. I was also published in the Susquehanna River Journal but it folded as well. Are you seeing a pattern here (laughs)? After having several haiku published in Permafrost, a literary journal out of the University of Alaska, and then writing a regular back page column “The Incompleat Angler” under the pen name of Iwaak Zalton for the Pennsylvania Council of TU’s quarterly newsletter, I put writing aside to focus on my career.  It wasn’t until I retired that I excavated many of the writings to compile this book.

CFP: Within the fly-fishing genre, how would you describe this book:

LW: A psychological thriller.

CFP: (laughs)

LW: No, seriously I guess you could label the book as creative non-fiction/memoir. Within the fly-fishing genre, there are many styles and content categories. Most dwell on technique, locating fish (usually of the large variety) within a body of water, or exotic locations. A few, like this one, enter the inner realm where the fly angler self reflects on terms that can be personal or existential.

CFP: You open the book with a quote from Cathy Newman. “Rivers are mirrors. We pursue trout and find an elusive something in ourselves.” What do you want your readers to take away from that message?

LW: Yeah, I love that quote. I found it in an old National Geographic magazine that was laying around in the rustic motel room I was staying in while in Juntura, Oregon on one of my ‘less traveled stream’ ventures. It was an article on fly-fishing for trout and I thought the sentence just captured the essence of what my writing was about.

 

CFP: Is your audience strictly the fly-fishing community?

LW: The events all stem from events on the stream, so of course, anybody who fishes may be able to relate. My journey through life bends through the lens of fly-fishing but I think there are broader themes addressed in some of the stories that could have wider appeal.

CFP: How do you think your stories might appeal to that broader audience?

LW: Well, I touch on creativity in my story “The Amish Boy,” a campground discussion of catch and release fishing with a vegan ensues in “Siren of Shangri-La,” a potential encounter with a menacing, gun-toting visitor to Valley Forge National Park in “Demons” and finding enlightenment in Woodward Cave are just some of the chapters with broader theme appeal than the angling community. I feel like “The New World” stands in as a coming-of-age story in the same mold as Stand By Me, not as well developed or defined, but snippets of a young boy’s growing into teen and young adulthood. I had fun recalling those scenes in my life.

CFP: You mention starting your book more than 30 years ago. What inspired you to write this book?

LW: As I mentioned earlier, these short stories and essays I had laying around began incubating when I thought I had enough of them to comprise a book. And truthfully, I wrote this book for myself. If others enjoy it and take something away from it, all the better.

CFP: Your first chapter pays homage to Richard Brautigan. When did that come about and did he have any influence on your writing?

LW: Right after his untimely death in 1984, I was inspired to write about him when I encountered this Amish boy in Lancaster County. I saw the link between Brautigan’s character in Trout Fishing in America Shorty and the Amish boy on that particular day. Brautigan was quirky in ways that I will never be, but yeah, Trout Fishing in America inspired that chapter.

CFP: You dedicate a portion of your proceeds to Trout Unlimited. Tell us about that organization and your role in it.

LW: About the time I was submitting my writing to regional publications, I was also heavily involved with my local Trout Unlimited chapter, Perkiomen Valley TU. For those who are unfamiliar, it is a national coldwater conservation organization with local chapters in states where trout, char, and salmon are present. Our chapter put forth a great effort to restore the upper Perkiomen watershed, including two key tributaries. For my part in that effort, I was awarded 2004 Member Conservationist of the Year by the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited. It was a team effort, but somebody submitted my name to the state council so I got stuck with the hardware. I’m very fond of the organization as a whole and wanted to give back to the national organization, hence the per-copy donation.

CFP: Well, thank you for your time today. I’m sure there will be great interest in your book.

LW You are welcome.