Director Morgan Atkinson interviewed me for his film about the Ohio River, “This is the Ohio: Life Death Rebirth of a Beautiful River.” I spent a lot of time reporting on the Ohio for my book Holding Back the River, and I told Morgan what I knew about the Corps of Engineers, the locks, the barge industry, and my thoughts on the river more broadly. I appreciated Morgan’s willingness to challenge preconceptions and preexisting narratives. His excellent film has aired on several PBS channels in Kentucky.

I was interviewed by Joel Stein for an episode of the Story of the Week Podcast. We talked about some of the funny and fascinating things I learned about Dave Chappelle and his hometown of Yellow Springs while reporting for Bloomberg Businessweek.

I am thrilled to announce that Holding Back the River has been longlisted for the 2022 PEN/ E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the insightful Stephanie Siu for a Q&A in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Living in a Changed Climate: A Conversation with Tyler J. Kelley

I spoke with Kyle Kellams, host of Ozarks at Large, about how levee breaches on the Arkansas River in 2019 spared Louisiana farmers in the Morganza Floodway. Who decides who gets wet and who stays dry? Listen here.

I spoke with host Adam Vos about the rising and falling of the Mississippi’s bed, one of many unintended consequences of last-century’s river management. As one scientist put it: “Just kicking the can about a century down the road.” Listen here (at 3:45).

I talked with host Doug Hamilton for his Main Street program about river mismanagement, and how flooding and farming can coexist. Listen here.

I’ll be in conversation with Anna Monardo, a fiction writer and professor of creative writing at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

May 22 at 1pm Central/ 2pm Eastern, online and free.

 https://www.bookwormomaha.com/event/tyler-j-kelley

https://www.facebook.com/events/493924965386113/

Anna Monardo is a Writer’s Workshop professor at UNO and the author of two books. Her first novel, The Courtyard of Dreams, was translated into German, Norwegian and Danish, and was nominated for a PEN/Hemingway Award and recommended for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Monardo’s stories, essays and poems have been anthologized, featured on National Public Radio, and published or are forthcoming in The Sun, More, Salon.com, Huffington Post, Poets & Writers, Indiana Review, Redbook and other magazines and journals.
 

I spoke with Mississippi Edition host Karen Brown about how, when a big river like the Mississippi floods, the water has to go somewhere. Whether it’s oysters and dolphins v. the City of New Orleans, or Cario, Illinois v. Pinhook, Missouri–there are winners and losers. Listen here (starting at 18:40).