Gone to Press!

Trout Do Not Lie, our forthcoming anthology of honored stories from the Robert Traver Fly-fishing Writing Award, has gone to press! The book design and images look fabulous. We expect to have books in hand in a few weeks, but the release date is not until November 3, 2026. The book is now available for pre-order from most major retailers. Ask your local independent bookseller if you can order a copy, or you can find them on-line.

Fly Art by Jill Osgood

Reviews Wanted: If anyone would like to write a review for a publication or website, you can contact me and I will put you in touch with our PR specialist at Stackpole Books/Globe Pequot to get you an advance review copy.

What writers and stories are included? The list of past Traver winners has been published on the American Museum of Fly Fishing website, and we have added a few honorable mentions and finalists for this anthology. For convenience, here is the Table of Contents for Trout Do Not Lie:

Foreword: The Right Award for Our Time by Seth Norman . . . . . vii

Introduction by David Van Wie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Testament of a Fisherman by Robert Traver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Brief History of the Traver Award by Jody Martin . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2008 Winner—Michael Doherty, “The Shining Path” . . . . . . . . . 14

2009 Winner—Pete Fromm, “The Land Beyond Maps” . . . . . . . . 23

2010 Winner—Kent Cowgill, “Two Men in a Museum” . . . . . . . . .32

2011 Winner—Michael Doherty, “Seven Great Flies

for the Boston Metropolitan Area” . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2012 Winner—Dave Karczynski, “Awake in the Moonlight:

Notes at Hex Time” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

2013 Winner—Richard Chiappone, “Requiem for a

River Bend” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

2015 Winner—E. Donnall Thomas Jr., “Rubies and Amethyst” . . . . 70

2016 Winner—Kent Cowgill, “Le Bouchon Souris” . . . . . . . . . . . 79

2019 Winner—Jimmy Watts, “A Wet World That Burns” . . . . . . . . 90

2020 Winner—Alexander Benoît, “Blue Lines” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

2021 Honorable Mention—Paige Wallace, “Pretending to Listen” . . . 104

2021 Winner—Jody Martin, “Simon’s Daughter” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

2022 Honorable Mention—Sarah Zoric, “Vanity Plates” . . . . . . . . 114

2022 Winner—Frank Sargeant, “A Dog Named Fish” . . . . . . . . . 123

2023 Winner—Matt Powell, “Middle Seat Meditations” . . . . . . . . 130

2024 Finalist—Michelle Werrett, “Following Filleul” . . . . . . . . . . 138

2024 Finalist—Katie Mac, “Between the Snow and the Second Line” . 145

2024 Winner—George Rogers, “Last Salad on the Gairezi” . . . . . . 153

2025 Honorable Mention—Michelle Oxford, “Upstream from

Forgetting” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

2025 Winner—Joseph Jackson, “Oncorhynchus” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Afterword by Nick Lyons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179

About the Writers, Artists, and Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

And, while I am at it, I might as well provide some further enticement by sharing my Introduction.

Here goes...

INTRODUCTION

David Van Wie

What exactly is a fly-fishing story?

The easy answer is . . . a story about fly fishing, of course. But the best

fly-fishing stories, as you will soon see, are really about something more

than fishing.

To qualify for the Robert Traver Award, a story must involve fly

fishing, or more precisely “the joy of fly fishing.” Among the winners,

fly fishing is invariably central to the story. Just as important, to stand

out and be recognized as a finalist, an honorable mention, or a winner,

a story or essay needs something else. What exactly? That is impossible

to say. There is no formula. But as you read these twenty stories, you will

experience great writing and storytelling in many forms. When you see

“it,” whatever it is, your most likely response will be “wow!”

Since the Traver Award began in 1994, the contenders have contained

layers of storytelling, multiple threads of meaning, and often an

unexpected twist or turn. They may be spiced with humor, leavened with

emotion, enlightened by epiphany, or infused with grief or loss. All are

pleasing to the ear. Success invariably requires creativity and craft. Big

words and complex sentences are not required. Neither are technical

equipment descriptions nor anglers’ jargon. “It” is more about the right

words, the pacing and rhythm, convincing dialogue, and the subtle meaning

between the words.

For six years, I’ve had the privilege of administering the award

process, working with volunteer judges—men and women—who share

their opinions about and reactions to dozens of entries. As you might

expect, not all judges see the same things in each story or essay. That is

why every entry is read (anonymously) by at least five judges or more. It

is fascinating to compile the scoring and comments and to consider why

some judges liked a story and others not so much.

In the first round, we trim the field of entries down to the top 20

to 25 percent of entries. A second round of five different judges then

narrows that group of contenders down to usually five to eight finalists

from which another group of four final judges chooses the winner by

consensus. That means the winning story must impress as many as fifteen

readers and writers to be named a Traver Award winner.

The stories in Trout Do Not Lie are the best of the best entries going

back to 2008, when the award was still run by Fly Rod & Reel magazine.

A first collection of Traver Award winners and some finalists from 1994

through 2007 titled In Hemingway’s Meadow was published in 2009 by

Fly Rod & Reel Books. That collection is still available from Down East

Books/Globe Pequot. The 2008 Traver Award winner, “The Shining Path” by Michael

Doherty, was included in a second 2010 collection of stories (not all of

which were Traver Award entries) previously published in Fly Rod &

Reel titled Love Story of the Trout. We decided to include the 2008 winner

again in this collection so that all the Traver Award winners from its

inception until 2025 are now available in two volumes.

When Grace Voelker Wood suggested in May 2016 that I “visit

Uncles,” also known to her father’s readers as Frenchman’s Pond, neither

of us suspected where my journey would lead me. Her generous

invitation followed my request for permission to reprint “Testament of a

Fisherman” in my first book, The Confluence. A year later, I found myself

at dinner in Marquette, Michigan, with Grace and her husband Woody

at the home of Rich and Sue Vander Veen, where a spark was lit to find

a new home for the Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award following

the unfortunate demise of Fly Rod & Reel magazine, which had been

administering the award since its inception in 1994. After hunting (fishing?)

for options, we formed a productive partnership between the John

D. Voelker Foundation (of which Rich is president) and the American

Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vermont. By January 2019, the

Traver Award was back in business after a two-year hiatus.

In the seven years (so far) that the Voelker Foundation and the

museum have been jointly administering the award, we have cultivated a

healthy community of writer-anglers who regularly express their appreciation

for the opportunity to submit their writing. Some beginning writers

are inspired to put their first tales (or “yarns” as John Voelker would say)

down on paper. Other more experienced and accomplished writers are

driven to land the big one: winner of this one-of-a-kind international

award. From first-timers to finalists, we urge writers to revise, rewrite,

and resubmit their stories, knowing that persistence and refinement pave

the path to success.

We begin this anthology with a foreword by Seth Norman, who won

the Traver Award in 1998 with “Edith’s Rule.” He has been a judge for

many years, including the last seven as one of four final judges. Traver

winner Jody Martin then provides a brief history of the Traver Award

with an abridged version of an article published in The American Fly

Fisher. Thereafter, the stories are arranged chronologically, with gap years

in 2017 and 2018 when the award had no home. The 2014 winner, “Prose

to Poetry” by Jerry Hamza, is not included here because we could not

secure copyright permission. We feature four honored stories written by

women, one from Canada and another from the United Kingdom, to

recognize that we see more contenders every year from female writers

and from writers outside the United States. And, finally in the afterword,

we give the esteemed Nick Lyons the last word about the Traver Award,

which he founded.

I hesitate to call the Traver Award a competition or even a contest.

Instead, I think of it as honoring outstanding writing, recognizing that

all entries are excellent in their own right. The Traver Award is about

storytelling, so we simply ask people to tell their stories the best way they

know how.

We called this collection Trout Do Not Lie to honor John Voelker’s

timeless declaration in “Testament of a Fisherman.” And while reading

the impressive work here you might say also that, despite the reputation

of anglers for stretching the truth, stories do not lie, even fictional stories.

Indeed, together these stories reveal the deepest truths about life and fly fishing.

As Henry David Thoreau did not say, fly fishing isn’t just about fishing.

Fishing is about much more than that. These remarkable stories tell

you exactly what that is. Enjoy!