Synopses & Reviews
The creek behind John Daniel's home in western Oregon disappears underground in the summer months. Using this creek (and a similar one from his childhood on the East Coast) as metaphor, Daniel writes about his own unstable identities and adventures as a student on LSD, a rock climber, logger, railroad worker, illicit firewood dealer, and finally a writer attentive to the "evidence of the unseen." Daniel's faith and sense of self are now grounded in the unseen forces of evolution, in which life's patterns can be seen in retrospect, but also in which to be fully alive (as a rock climber or a poet) is to listen for the hints and clues that connect one to the still unfolding story of being.
Daniel's varied experiences have led him to appreciate people who have lived for generations on the land people who are often at odds with environmentalists. He also introduces the writers who guided him, especially Wiliam Stafford and Wallace Stegner.
Winter Creek is a book in the Credo series.
Review
"'It is enough, it is plenty, to be a small parcel of Natures becoming,' writes Daniel. In this reflective and polished text, he has very much insinuated himself into the process.quot; Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Daniel is never as original, specific or urgent as Joy Williams in her collection of ecology essays, Ill Nature, although his prose is vivid and thoughtful....[His] point of view is commendable if unremarkable." Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
The creek behind John Daniels home in western Oregon disappears underground in the summer months. Using this creek as a metaphor, Daniel reflects on his own seasonal changes from days as a student on LSD, rock climber, logger, and railroad worker, to life as a writer attentive to the evidence of the unseen.” The newest title in Milkweed's Credo series, this is a compelling, honest memoir about becoming a poet and writer. [Daniels voice is] fresh, self-reflective, and free of cant ... shows considerable originality, force, and descriptive art.” Kirkus Reviews on John Daniel's The Trail Home
About the Author
Two-time winner of the Oregon Book Award for Literary Nonfiction, John Daniel lives in Elmira, Oregon, in the Coast Range foothills near Eugene. He is the author a memoir, Looking After; a collection of nature essays, The Trail Home; and two books of poems, Common Ground and All Things Touched by Wind. He wrote the text of Oregon Rivers and is the editor of the anthology Wild Song: Poems of the Natural World. He has been a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, a research and writing fellow at Oregon State University's Center for the Humanities, and recently held a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.