About Chris

Chris Dombrowski writes, teaches, and plies the rivers of western Montana. He is the author of two books of nonfiction—Body of Water: A Sage, a Seeker, and the World’s Most Alluring Fish and The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water—both published by Milkweed Editions, as well as three acclaimed collections of poetry, most recently Ragged Anthem. A longtime river-guide, he lives with his family in Missoula, Montana, where he directs the Creative Writing Program at University of Montana.

Upon its publication in fall of 2016, Jim Harrison called Body of Water “A brilliant book. Destined to be a classic,” and praised it in his New York Times “By the Book” interview. The book was dubbed “an immersion…a spiritual memoir in the manner of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” in Orion and lauded in venues from Outside to The Wall Street Journal, the latter of which called it reminiscent of Gary Snyder and John McPhee. As a reviewer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote, “Body of Water is about bonefishing, but it is also about ecosystem exploitation, class conflict, wealth inequity, race relations, Bahamian history, mentor-mentee relationships, nature as the catalyst for self-awareness, and more.” Body of Water was named a Bloomberg News Book of the Year and was an Indie Next Pick for 2017. Recently, The Wall Street Journal named it one of the “Five Best Books on Angling,” calling it “a wonderful, restless memoir.”

Winner of the Montana Book Award’s Nonfiction Honor Book, Dombrowski’s second book of prose, The River You Touch, was published in 2022 and praised as “a fresh take on Montana” in The New York Times, a “poignant rumination on what it means to connect with nature” in USA Today, “an excellent memoir from the wordsmith Chris Dombrowski” in Forbes, and a “beautifully and poignant tribute to a beloved landscape and its spirit,” in a starred Kirkus review. BOMB Magazine said simply, “The River You Touch will change the way people see the world.” “In prose you could sharpen a knife on,” wrote Gray’s Sporting Journal, "Dombrowski followed his masterful Body of Water with a brilliant memoir.” And from Outside: “Every sentence of this book sings.”