{"id":31590,"date":"2025-09-22T19:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flyfishing-blog.com\/flyfishing-blog.com\/?p=31590"},"modified":"2025-09-20T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:00:00","slug":"the-2025-robert-traver-fly-fishing-writing-award-winner-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flyfishing-blog.com\/flyfishing-blog.com\/2025\/09\/22\/the-2025-robert-traver-fly-fishing-writing-award-winner-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2025 Robert Traver Fly Fishing Writing Award Winner Announced!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

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The John D. Voelker Foundation and the American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF) are pleased to announce the winner of the 2025 Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award: \u201cOncorhynchus\u201d by Joseph Jackson. This is a touching story of man on a quest to catch a king salmon and choose a name for his soon-to-be born daughter while contemplating his future as a father.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The winning entry will receive a $2,500 prize and is available to read on the American Museum of Fly Fishing\u2019s website at www.amff.org\/traver-winners-2025<\/a> and the Voelker Foundation website at www.voelkerfoundation.com<\/a>. \u201cOncorhynchus\u201d will be published in the Winter 2026 issue of the American Fly Fisher, the journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. It will also be published in an upcoming anthology of Traver Award stories since 2008, which will be available from Stackpole Books.<\/p>\n

Joseph Jackson is a social studies teacher and outdoor writer in Alaska. He is the author of two books of outdoor essays, It\u2019s Only Fishing (2023) and Chasing the Dark (2024), and his writing and photography have appeared in numerous magazines. When he\u2019s not getting up early to chase rainbow trout or king salmon or hunt ptarmigan with his wife, Emmie, he\u2019s learning how to be a father to the world\u2019s next greatest fly fisherwoman. Mr. Jackson won Honorable Mention in the 2024 Traver Award contest with his story \u201cHow to Say Gila.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Jackson commented, \u201cI endeavour to find words for everything, but here they fail me. I am deeply, deeply honoured to join the echelon of Traver Award winners. It was a Robert Traver story, actually\u2014\u201cThe Intruder\u201d\u2014that got me hooked on fly fishing writing in the first place, so this whole thing feels like a wonderful circuit has been completed. My heart is very full.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Traver Award judges also bestowed Honourable Mention recognition on three other entries:<\/strong>
\n\u201cUpstream from Forgetting\u201d by Michelle Oxford of Kentwood, Michigan
\n\u201cThe Midnight Fly-Fishing Society\u201d by Cynthia Jones of Santa Cruz, California
\n\u201cWell, I Never\u201d by Henry Hughes of Monmouth, Oregon<\/p>\n

The three honourable mention stories are available on the American Museum of Fly Fishing and Voelker Foundation websites, and their writers will each receive a $250 prize.<\/p>\n

The 2025 competition drew a field of 118 stories and essays. Entries were judged anonymously, resulting in seven finalists. The other three finalists were:
\n\u201cThe Fish Counter\u2019s Daughter\u201d by Lucas Cunningham of Chicago, Illinois
\n\u201cThe First Day of the Year\u201d by Julie Zapoli of Maple City, Michigan
\n\u201cConflagration\u201d by Jon Tobey of Duvall, Washington<\/p>\n

The Traver Award is named after Robert Traver, pen name of the late John D. Voelker, author of Trout Madness, Trout Magic, Anatomy of a Fisherman, the 1958 best seller Anatomy of a Murder, and the fine historical novel Laughing Whitefish. Judge Voelker also served on the Michigan Supreme Court as its 74th justice from 1956 to 1960. A collection of Voelker\u2019s finest \u201cyarns\u201d and observations about fishing was published posthumously by Nick Lyons in 2001 under the title Traver on Fishing.<\/p>\n

The Traver Award was created in 1994 to encourage and recognise \u201cdistinguished original stories or essays that embody the implicit love of fly fishing, respect for the sport, and the natural world in which it takes place.\u201d The winning story or essay must demonstrate high literary values in one or more of these three categories:
\nThe joy of fly fishing: personal and philosophic experience
\nEcology: knowledge and protection of the natural world
\nHumour: piscatorial friendships and fun on the water
\nTwenty-seven Traver Awards have been conferred since 1994. Two anthologies of the Traver Award winners and finalists have been published: In Hemingway\u2019s Meadow (2009) and Love Story of the Trout (2010). A new anthology of Traver Award stories since 2008, titled Trout Do Not Lie, will be published by Stackpole Books.<\/p>\n

The Voelker Foundation and the American Museum of Fly Fishing joined forces in 2018 to administer the Traver Award and publish the winner in the AMFF journal. For more information, see www.voelkerfoundation.com<\/a> and www.amff.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

American Museum of Fly Fishing<\/strong>, 4070 Main Street Manchester, VT 05254, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The John D. Voelker Foundation and the American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF) are pleased to announce the winner of the 2025 Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award: \u201cOncorhynchus\u201d by Joseph Jackson. This is a touching story of man on a quest to catch a king salmon and choose a name for his soon-to-be born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[3751],"class_list":["post-31590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-american-museum-of-fly-fishing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t