Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay Franklin Burroughs Photographs by Heather Perry Paperback, $30, ISBN 978-0-88448-282-6 8 x 10, 176 pages, color photographs Nature / Maine

John Burroughs 2009 Medal Award for Best Nature Writing

"Burroughs' words and Perry's photographs will show you a Merrymeeting you never knew existed."
—Maine Sportsman

". . . he makes me think of E. B. White, and I can't offer higher praise than that."
—Richard Grant, Down East

"Franklin Burroughs—my nominee for Maine's Essayist Laureate—and photographer Heather Perry have combined their considerable talents to show us in word and image the rich life of Merrymeeting Bay—its frogs and sturgeon, its eels, eagles, ducks, and wild rice, its time and tides, its scenic beauty, the good people who live on it and around it. If you've never been to the Bay, this book will make you want to go there before another day has gone by."
—Robert Kimber, co-author of A Place on Water and author of Upcountry, A Canoeist's Sketchbook, and other titles

"The confluence of two (wonderfully) creative energies in Heather Perry and Frank Burroughs makes this book on Maine's unique Merrymeeting Bay a journalistic treasure. Frank Burroughs' stories about the bay and its people are insightful, profound, and interesting —as well as enlarging. Heather Perry's photographs are hard won and delicious, taken over many years. No one I know has photographed the American eel as has Heather Perry."
—Bill Curtsinger, author/photographer of Extreme Nature and other books, and National Geographic photographer

There are said to be only four places in the world where two major rivers—with entirely separate watersheds—converge at their mouths to form a common delta. Three are famous, having loomed large in the histories and economies of their regions: the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta in California, Tigris-Euphrates delta in Iraq, and the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. The fourth is Merrymeeting Bay in Maine. It is unfamiliar to most people, even within its immediate vicinity.

Frank Burroughs has lived and knocked around on Merrymeeting Bay for three decades, gaining a familiarity with its natural and human history—with its birds, fish, and mammals, and with the local people who know it best. His wonderfully fluid essays explore the ecology, environment, and activities in this unusual bay, as Heather Perry's beautiful photographs show us the details.

Franklin Burroughs taught English literature at Bowdoin College from 1968 to 2002. He is the author of two books, The River Home: A Return to the Low Country, and Billy Watson's Croker Sack. His essays have appeared in a variety of literary quarterlies and have been reprinted in such collections as Best American Essays, The Pushcart Anthology, and The Norton Anthology of Nature Writing.

Heather Perry is a photographer who loves being underwater. With a degree in biology, she is particularly interested in local marine and freshwater natural history subjects. Her work has appeared in Ocean Navigator, Maine Times, Trout, Atlantic Salmon Journal, Dive International (UK), Le Monde (Paris), and Georama Experiment (Greece). Her stock imagery collection is currently represented by National Geographic Image Collection. Recent exhibits in Maine include Watermen of Merrymeeting Bay at Maine Maritime Museum, and her work on Merrymeeting Bay and American eels at the Salt Gallery in Portland. For more about Heather: www.heatherperryphoto.com, www.twitter.com/Heathfish