Over the past several years via the Emerging Scholars Network I’ve gotten to know David L. O’Hara, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Philosophy and Classics, Augustana College, South Dakota). I particularly appreciate the refreshing manner in which he addresses material on his blog Slowly Percolating Forms. After the release of his new Wipf and Stock publication, Downstream: Reflections on Brook Trout, Fly-Fishing, and the Waters of Appalachia (co-authored with Matthew Dickerson, Ph.D., Computer Science Professor, Middlebury College), I dropped him a line to see if he’d be willing to share about Downstream with the Emerging Scholars Network. No doubt it was special timing that both David and Matthew were able to respond with the new term so close at hand. I encourage you to sit back and enjoy the conversation around the virtual media table. Tom: Dear David and Matthew, Thank-you for taking the time to join us on the Emerging Scholars Network blog. Please begin by sharing with our readers the story behind Downstream: Reflections on Brook Trout, Fly-Fishing, and the Waters of Appalachia.
DAVID: My friend, Professor Matthew Dickerson (Middlebury College) and I spent the better part of six years researching and writing about brook trout throughout the Appalachians from Maine to Georgia. Several impulses drove us on: first, we love brook trout and the places they live. We wanted to get to know the fish and their native waters better, and to do what we could to help our communities to care for those places. Second, all of our writing together (this is our third co-authored book) is the product of an enduring friendship.