Dead Fish Rising

The water of Dunkard Creek is too warm and too orange, and all of its animals are dead. Lily, a young girl, and her father, Jack, set out for a day of fishing on the creek. After hours of fishing without one nibble, Jack decides to move his boat. Fishing takes patience but this is too much- Jack takes a nap while Lily watches the poles. And then it happens: a fish pokes his head up through the water and starts talking to Lily, saying that he is dead and he wants to know why. This starts Lily off on a journey through a surreal landscape of forest creatures, corporate bosses, and government officials that ends with Jack on a quest to save his daughter’s life. The fantastical and the real merge into a tragicomedy that challenges readers to think about the cataclysmic impacts of fossil fuel and its contaminants on rivers and streams. Dead Fish Rising is a fanciful story based on actual events.