So Said the River: Life, Loss, and Pie on the Colorado

So Said the River: Life, Loss, and Pie on the Colorado

"It’s a divorce memoir as much as it is a travel book, though Miniuk’s brilliant full-color photographs keep the journey from ever feeling too dark. One can’t help but finish the book wanting to embark on a wild adventure of one’s own. An inspiring tale of self-discovery and mother-daughter friendship.” ~Kirkus Reviews For 40 years, Colleen Miniuk relentlessly pursued perfection, achievement, and success without finding happiness. Then she found herself unexpectedly facing the end of her marriage. To cope with the devastating loss, she and her mother, Jacque, attempted to paddle across Lake Powell, a reservoir along the Colorado River on the Utah-Arizona border. Like life, the trip did not go as planned. How do you find fulfillment, especially while navigating life’s hardships? How do you become a free-flowing river when you’ve run into an impeding dam and life tries to turn you into a reservoir? During her raw adventures on the Colorado from Moab to Lake Mead, Colleen challenges beliefs, confronts fears, and finds the courage to live deliberately and authentically. Out of the storms and rapids, she discovers that “happily ever after” sometimes looks different than what we have been told. So Said the River shares one woman’s riveting journey of self-discovery. It encourages readers to create their own definition of success and inspires confidence in those who have chosen, or may choose, non-traditional ways to live one’s life. "In So Said The River, life reflects the Colorado’s pure purpose, flowing in spite of all the obstacles on the journey. Hold on tight, this story is a transcendent adventure worth taking." ~Dave Showalter, photographer/author of Living River: The Promise of the Mighty Colorado "“Exuberant, precocious Colleen Miniuk points her inflatable standup paddleboard Lir into turbulent Colorado River waters; we participate in her journey of discovery. Rigid perfectionism and control yield to new self-confidence not based on perceived societal expectations. Widely held truisms fade as she learns, by near-death helplessness, that the Universe of truth and love prevails." ~Jeanne Falk Adams, The Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite National Park " So Said the River is part travelogue, part self-help manifesto, but it’s also a love letter to America’s most stunning landscape and a plea for environmental preservation, and will make you want to pick up a paddle and head to the canyons of the Southwest."~Beth Howard, author of Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Pie "Colleen Miniuk’s beloved Colorado River tells her, "Be the water." She listens. In doing so, she charts both the West’s great river and her own evolving life in this charming and honest book." ~Stephen Trimble, editor of Red Rock Stories and The Capitol Reef Reader Colleen J. Miniuk (she/her/hers) is a corporate-America-escapee turned full-time outdoor photographer, writer, publisher, instructor, and speaker. Her credits include National Geographic calendars, Arizona Highways, AAA Via, National Parks Traveler, On Landscape, and a variety of other publications. After serving three times as an Artist-in-Residence with Acadia National Park, she authored the award-winning guidebook, Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How. She is also the author of Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers, Seeing the Light in Outdoor Photography, and The Current Flows: Water in the Arid West. She writes an online photography advice column called “Dear Bubbles”. Colleen also leads photography workshops, women’s photography retreats (called “Sheography™”), and online sessions for camera clubs, outdoor organizations, and private clients. She is the recipient of the prestigious J. Hammond Brown Memorial Award from the Outdoor Writers Association of America. She resides in Chandler, AZ, on the ancestral homeland of the Hohokam, in the Colorado River watershed.