About Chris

Chris Dombrowski’s nonfiction debut, Body of Water: A Sage, A Seeker, and the World’s Most Alluring Fish (Milkweed Editions, 2016), was hailed in The New York Times Book Review; lauded as “finely wrought and profoundly life-affirming” in a starred Publishers Weekly column; drew comparisons to Gary Snyder and John McPhee in the Wall Street Journal; and was called “a spiritual memoir in the tradition of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” in Orion magazine. Body of Water was named to numerous Best Books of 2016 list, and the American Booksellers Association placed the paperback on its Top Ten Indie Next Picks for 2017-2018.

A recipient of numerous grants and awards, Chris also the author two books of poems, By Cold Water, a Poetry Foundation Bestseller, and Earth Again, runner-up for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year, both published by Wayne State University Press. His essays and poems have appeared in over 100 publications and anthologies including Poetry, Orion, Outside, The Southern Review, The Sun, Michigan Quarterly Review, Gray's Sporting Journal, Guernica, and Gulf Coast. 

For the better part of two decades Chris has taught creative writing to a vast array of age groups, most recently as the William Kittredge Visiting Writer in Residence at the University of Montana. In addition, he has worked as a fly-fishing guide in Missoula, Montana, where he directs the Beargrass Writing Retreat, and makes his home with his loveably feral family.  He is currently at work on a second book of nonfiction, tentatively titled The Nature of Wonder, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions.