What do you think?
Rate this book
A Place on the Water : An Angler's Reflections on Home
More than a collection of fishing stories, A Place on the Water is a passionate and eloquent exploration of subjects with broad appeal: love of land and water, informed and unsentimental appreciation of nature, and outrage at changes that threaten to obliterate places we can no longer afford to take for granted. Jerry Dennis’s sparkling prose and Glenn Wolff’s captivating illustrations transport us to a world we recognize from childhood: a place of limitless range and possibility, shimmering with life, where the very next cast will be the one that hooks something enormous and wonderful.
PRAISE:
“A Place on the Water is a collection of lyrical, haunting essays, set in northern Michigan. Many are about fishing, but that does not necessarily mean they are to be enjoyed strictly by anglers. Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River was about fishing, too, but can be read for pleasure if you have never wet a line…Dennis covers a lot of ground, then; but there is throughout the book a kind of constant tone, as sharp and precise as the scent of cedar. And it stays with the reader long after he has put down the book.” ~Geoffrey Norman, author of American Way
“Eloquent essays about the author’s adventures exploring his love of land, water and nature in his beloved Michigan…Enjoyable reading with beautiful, evocative illustrations.” ~Sports Afield
"Jerry Dennis is one of a handful of superb writer who love angling deeply and write memoirs full of warmth, eloquence, and wit. A Place on the Water is a book of many robust—and fragile—miracles." ~Nick Lyons, Author of Spring Creek
"This is a book that Will remind you why you've always loved fishing canoeing, and all the other things you can only do on the water." ~John Gierach, author of Even Brook Trout Get the Blues
“Dennis is a gifted writer whose best stories evoke a true ‘spirit of place,’ to use a Lawrence Durrell phrase. Like fellow Michigan writer Jim Harrison, Edward Abbey, or Durrell, whose works of fiction and non-fiction would bring to life the places they wrote about, Dennis’ Michigan springs to life. You can almost smell the musky riverbanks or hear the buzzing mosquitoes…You don’t need to know anything about fishing to enjoy this wonderful book.” ~Silent Sports Magazine
“My favorite things are a single phrase: “It felt like the hand of the earth came up and grabbed my line”; and a profile, the best one I’ve ever seen, of the great fly-fishing writer Robert Traver… [This book] is a textbook demonstration of how loyalty to a place can produce a fascinating body of work that will be read far outside that place.” ~Fly Rod and Reel Magazine
“…invites and inspires us to explore nature, to reflect more on our time outdoors, and never to squander a moment doing things half-hearted” ~Jackson Citizen-Patriot
“Michigan is lucky to have and have had such clear voices speaking for it as John Voelker and Jerry Dennis.” ~Gray’s Sporting Journal
“Strong, original and truthful…A sparkling, autobiographical collection of stories that will draw you into a shared sense of time and place.” ~Grand Rapids Press
“A Place on the Water belongs with the small handful of classic books about fishing and the out-of-doors.
PRAISE:
“A Place on the Water is a collection of lyrical, haunting essays, set in northern Michigan. Many are about fishing, but that does not necessarily mean they are to be enjoyed strictly by anglers. Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River was about fishing, too, but can be read for pleasure if you have never wet a line…Dennis covers a lot of ground, then; but there is throughout the book a kind of constant tone, as sharp and precise as the scent of cedar. And it stays with the reader long after he has put down the book.” ~Geoffrey Norman, author of American Way
“Eloquent essays about the author’s adventures exploring his love of land, water and nature in his beloved Michigan…Enjoyable reading with beautiful, evocative illustrations.” ~Sports Afield
"Jerry Dennis is one of a handful of superb writer who love angling deeply and write memoirs full of warmth, eloquence, and wit. A Place on the Water is a book of many robust—and fragile—miracles." ~Nick Lyons, Author of Spring Creek
"This is a book that Will remind you why you've always loved fishing canoeing, and all the other things you can only do on the water." ~John Gierach, author of Even Brook Trout Get the Blues
“Dennis is a gifted writer whose best stories evoke a true ‘spirit of place,’ to use a Lawrence Durrell phrase. Like fellow Michigan writer Jim Harrison, Edward Abbey, or Durrell, whose works of fiction and non-fiction would bring to life the places they wrote about, Dennis’ Michigan springs to life. You can almost smell the musky riverbanks or hear the buzzing mosquitoes…You don’t need to know anything about fishing to enjoy this wonderful book.” ~Silent Sports Magazine
“My favorite things are a single phrase: “It felt like the hand of the earth came up and grabbed my line”; and a profile, the best one I’ve ever seen, of the great fly-fishing writer Robert Traver… [This book] is a textbook demonstration of how loyalty to a place can produce a fascinating body of work that will be read far outside that place.” ~Fly Rod and Reel Magazine
“…invites and inspires us to explore nature, to reflect more on our time outdoors, and never to squander a moment doing things half-hearted” ~Jackson Citizen-Patriot
“Michigan is lucky to have and have had such clear voices speaking for it as John Voelker and Jerry Dennis.” ~Gray’s Sporting Journal
“Strong, original and truthful…A sparkling, autobiographical collection of stories that will draw you into a shared sense of time and place.” ~Grand Rapids Press
“A Place on the Water belongs with the small handful of classic books about fishing and the out-of-doors.
- GenresNonfictionNature
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1993
12 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Jerry Dennis
41 books47 followersJerry Dennis was born in Flint in 1954, and grew up in rural northern Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Louisville in 1981, after attending Northern Michigan University and Northwestern Michigan College.
As he began his writing career, he worked as a carpenter for five years. To date, he has written for many publications. Journalistic assignments sent him to Iceland, Chile, and extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Dennis married during this time to Gail. They currently live on the shores of Lake Michigan, not far from Traverse City.
Since 2000 he has been on the faculty of the University of Michigan's Bear River Writers Conference, where he teaches creative non-fiction and nature writing.
As of 2014, he is the author of ten books, his best known book is The Living Great Lakes, about his trip around the great lakes in a rickety ship. He was awarded a place on the Michigan Notable Books list for that book.
In 2014, in response to a pricing dispute between his publisher, MacMillan Press, and Amazon, Dennis set up his own publishing house, Big Maple Press, to produce books which will be sold only through independent booksellers.
His awards include: 2004 Michigan Notable Books, 2004 Sigurd Olsen Nature Writing Award, 2004 Great Lakes Culture Best Book Award Non-Fiction, 2004 The Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature,
2003 Alumni Fellows Award, University of Louisville, College of Arts and Sciences,
1999 Michigan Author of the Year,
1993, 1996, 1998, and 2003 Best Book of the Year awarded by Outdoor Writers Association of America.
As he began his writing career, he worked as a carpenter for five years. To date, he has written for many publications. Journalistic assignments sent him to Iceland, Chile, and extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Dennis married during this time to Gail. They currently live on the shores of Lake Michigan, not far from Traverse City.
Since 2000 he has been on the faculty of the University of Michigan's Bear River Writers Conference, where he teaches creative non-fiction and nature writing.
As of 2014, he is the author of ten books, his best known book is The Living Great Lakes, about his trip around the great lakes in a rickety ship. He was awarded a place on the Michigan Notable Books list for that book.
In 2014, in response to a pricing dispute between his publisher, MacMillan Press, and Amazon, Dennis set up his own publishing house, Big Maple Press, to produce books which will be sold only through independent booksellers.
His awards include: 2004 Michigan Notable Books, 2004 Sigurd Olsen Nature Writing Award, 2004 Great Lakes Culture Best Book Award Non-Fiction, 2004 The Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature,
2003 Alumni Fellows Award, University of Louisville, College of Arts and Sciences,
1999 Michigan Author of the Year,
1993, 1996, 1998, and 2003 Best Book of the Year awarded by Outdoor Writers Association of America.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 16, 2016
A wonderful series of short stories about a man's fishing experiences in the Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan. The hunts, challenges, failures, and wonderful catches of native fish in the region are explained in very readable and beautifully written prose. A very good read.
November 20, 2012
I loved this book. "The Christmas Gift" and "In the Buffalo Fields" are two of my all-time favorite outdoor stories.
October 2, 2023
Another wonderful collection of stories and observations by Jerry Dennis. Many of them are about fishing, but there are also several that just touch on the outdoors and nature in general and some that are just about canoeing.
I really enjoy his writing, I didn’t like this collection quite as much as From a Wooden Canoe but there are still many enjoyable reads - some poignant, some comical, many a mixture of both, in this book.
I really enjoy his writing, I didn’t like this collection quite as much as From a Wooden Canoe but there are still many enjoyable reads - some poignant, some comical, many a mixture of both, in this book.
October 7, 2024
Basically from this book I have learned that if you live in northern Michigan, you love to fish. And that principle may shape most of your life and many beliefs. It may be a significant and noble bond to the environment, the seasons, your community, and the food supply. It may fuel a lifetime of nostalgia and good feelings. If you’re looking for variety outside of that, you might not find much.
June 30, 2013
It's been noted that some of the best fishing is done while reading. This old book by Jerry Dennis, illustrations by Glenn Wolff, easily carries the weight of that statement. A life spent fishing produces a list of memories from youth through middle age, marriage and fatherhood for our author. Share his joy in the natural wonders of the UP. Read closely, there are very broad hints at fishing holes that remain productive for those naturally reproducing brook trout pursued today as vigorously as in the past.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews