Tele Aadsen

writer - fisherman - listener

What Water Holds, a book by Tele Aadsen. Front cover with watercolor of salmon under a wave.

What Water Holds

May 2023, Emp­ty Bowl Press

Tele Aad­sen entered com­mer­cial salmon fish­ing at sev­en years old on her par­ents’ home­made trolling boat, and what bet­ter guide could there be to a liv­ing, and a life, made at sea? Her clear-eyed essays over­flow with warmth and pre­ci­sion, hon­or­ing work, gen­der, com­mu­ni­ty and crea­tures in com­pli­cat­ed ways. Shear­wa­ters and boat cats, potlucks and res­cues, depres­sion and recov­ery: Aad­sen casts a wide net, and the read­er can trust her eye, ear, mind and heart. A fine con­tri­bu­tion to the work­ing woman’s canon.

Chris­tine Byl

author of, Look­out and Dirt Work: An Edu­ca­tion in the Woods

Pro­nounced “Tell-ah.” She/her.

Tree hug­ging, tofu eat­ing, fem­i­nist fish­er­man. Sea­son­al­ly migratory.

Lapsed social worker.

Fish­er­Po­et: not a poet but a proet, a prose writer min­ing life on the water for uni­ver­sal human experiences.

Author of What Water Holds.

Lover of corvids, cof­feeshops, sun­catch­ers, kindness.

Lis­ten­er; hold­er of space. Believ­er in the rad­i­cal work of being human with one anoth­er, one sto­ry at a time.