Tele Aadsen

writer - fisherman - listener

What Water Holds, a book by Tele Aadsen with watercolor painting of fish underwater

(Cov­er by Lisa Teas Conaway)

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What Water Holds

Tele Aad­sen met the ocean as a child when her par­ents trad­ed jobs as vet­eri­nar­i­ans for a migra­to­ry life shared with sea birds, salmon, and fish­er­men. In the mist of the Ton­gass rain­for­est, Tele learned to explore life with­in end­less shades of gray, com­ing to know first­hand how fine the line between life and death and the pre­car­i­ous bal­ance of sea, land, and sky. She’s spent the four decades since trolling for salmon in South­east Alaska. 

In What Water Holds, a series of lyri­cal essays first shared at Oregon’s Fish­er­Po­ets Gath­er­ing, Tele exam­ines ques­tions of equi­ty, iden­ti­ty, com­mu­ni­ty, the chang­ing cli­mate, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty with lov­ing, detailed atten­tion, reveal­ing the com­plex­i­ties with­in their many shades of gray. Weav­ing sto­ries of what lies beneath the sur­face and the pos­si­bil­i­ties beyond, What Water Holds speaks to any­one who has fall­en under the spell of the sea, strug­gled to find their own unchart­ed path, and wres­tled with big philo­soph­i­cal ques­tions — in short, any­one seek­ing to live a full, deeply con­sid­ered life.

Avail­able May 2023 from Emp­ty Bowl Press.

More of this. More of the truth-telling, the mean­ing-seek­ing, the map­ping of the ter­rain where heart and mind meet. In this beau­ti­ful, brave, knowl­edge­able col­lec­tion, Aad­sen invites us to exam­ine an indus­try with clear eyes, offers us rare insights into the inte­ri­or worlds and the exter­nal real­i­ties that shape both labor and mem­o­ry. Her rec­ol­lec­tions are rich and poignant, and her eye for social cri­tique is unwa­ver­ing as she lays bare the com­plex­i­ties of fish­ing life. Gen­der, death, pow­er, his­to­ry, rela­tion­ships, col­or, and the nat­ur­al world all come under her gaze and are shared with ruth­less love. More, please.

Lara Messer­smith-Glavin

author of, Spir­it Things

In this slim, ele­gant vol­ume, Tele Aad­sen evokes the sea and the fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty in all its per­il and poet­ry. From child­hood on, hers is a life lived from dock to deck, and the empa­thy and under­stand­ing she brings to her past res­onates on every page. Her hard-earned wis­dom is ren­dered in bril­liant writ­ing. The read­er can savor these essays one at a time, or plunge through the whole book and be equal­ly delight­ed. Read What Water Holds and you will nev­er look at salmon in quite the same way again.

Lau­ra Kalpakian

author of, Mem­o­ry Into Memoir

From the slick deck of a rock­ing fish­ing boat, Tele Aad­sen finds her foot­ing and nav­i­gates the squalls of life with raw vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and courage. What Water Holds is a man­i­festo to face the waves, embrace the unknown, and give thanks for all of it – storms and rain­bows, scarci­ty and abun­dance, loss and love.
Amy Gulick

author and pho­tog­ra­ph­er of, The Salmon Way and Salmon in the Trees

In Tele Aadsen’s extra­or­di­nary new book, What Water Holds, we have a per­fect writer to cap­tain this tale of work, love, and life fish­ing the Alaskan seas. Read­ing this sto­ry is to be trans­port­ed from what­ev­er sta­tion­ary world you occu­py to that life she ren­ders so beau­ti­ful­ly, with all the risks, chal­lenges, joys, and more found in this memoir’s hold. Aad­sen is a mas­ter at keep­ing her bal­ance when a rogue wave or a rogue mem­o­ry comes to call. She writes, “Birds, fish, life: It’s all one great mys­tery… Always search­ing for what’s not vis­i­ble on the sur­face…” And that is what this writer does so effort­less­ly in stun­ning prose. She dives, goes sub­sur­face, to bring us mys­tery, the most sought-after boun­ty. How for­tu­nate are we, as read­ers, to have her at the helm of this incred­i­ble book.

Toni Miro­se­vich

author of, Spell Heav­en