Melissa L. Sevigny: Mythical River

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover: Mythical River: Chasing the Mirage of New Water in the American Southwest by Melissa L. Sevigny

MYTHICAL RIVER:
CHASING THE MIRAGE OF NEW WATER
IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST
Melissa L. Sevigny
University of Iowa Press, March 15, 2016, $27.50
ISBN-10: 1609383931
ISBN-13: 978-1609383930

Sevigny reports:

I first had the idea for Mythical River in 2010, while I was working for a water research institute in Tucson, Arizona. On a slow day I asked my editor, Joe Gelt, if he had a story for me to work on. He asked me to write a short piece about the mythical Buenaventura River, once believed to provide easy passage across the American Southwest by Anglo explorers, fur trappers, and pioneers.

The story captured my imagination. It struck me as a metaphor for our modern ideas about water. Tucson and other desert communities didn’t live within their watersheds, but instead relied on water transported from hundreds of miles away, or drank fossil aquifers faster than they could replenish. We acted as if water would appear wherever we demanded it. This is a myth, a mirage.

I decided to tell those stories in parallel: the tale of the Buenaventura River, which was printed on maps of the American Southwest for 75 years, alongside stories of “new water:” canals, dams, cloud-seeding towers, and desalination plants.

Melissa Sevigny

Wrapped up in this narrative is my personal journey to acknowledge the difficulties of making an ethical home in a desert. I tell the stories of people working to create a new outlook on water — one that recognizes the rights of rivers, from the beleaguered and litigated Colorado, to the dry washes that crisscross my childhood landscape.

I wrote the core of this book as my graduate MFA thesis at Iowa State University. A chance encounter at an environmental conference led to the offer of a contract from the University of Iowa Press well before the book was done. A grant from the Ellen Meloy Award for Desert Writers enabled me to finish my travel and research.

One thing I might do differently next time is seek funding more diligently and sooner — not only because the money was useful, but also because the process of applying for grants greatly helped me refine my vision for the book, and ultimately write a successful prospectus.

Contact info:

Melissa Sevigny, 928-523-4095, melissa.l.sevigny@gmail.com, http://melissasevigny.com
Publicist: Allison Means, 319-335-3440, allison-means@uiowa.edu
Book website: http://www.uiowapress.org/books/2016-spring/mythical-river.htm

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Tell your fellow NASW members how you came up with the idea for your book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, funded and conducted research, and put the book together. Include what you wish you had known before you began working on your book, or had done differently.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines for information on submitting your report.

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