Author Reading: Travel Writer and White Water Rafting Guide Bridget Crocker

Wild meets Educated in renowned whitewater rafting guide and travel writer Bridget Crocker’s debut memoir, T’S(Spiegel & Grau; June 3). An empowering story about a young woman facing her traumatic past and coming into her own life through her relationship with the natural world. As one astute early reader said, “It turns out navigating the extreme rapids in rivers around the world turns out to be easier for Bridget than navigating the perils of family and childhood trauma.”
In The River’s Daughter we follow a young woman on a gripping and inspiring adventure as she finds empowerment through her relationship with the rivers she navigates as one of the world’s foremost female rafting guides. After her parents' volatile divorce, Bridget moved with her mother from California to a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River in Wyoming. Her nearly idyllic childhood was abruptly upended when her mother underwent a drastic personality change seemingly overnight and left her stepfather for an eco-warrior and radical new lifestyle. Bridget returned to California to live with her explosive father until his violence sent her back to Wyoming. Crocker writes: “I developed a special relationship with the Snake River while growing up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which led me to an international river guiding career. I began writing this book twenty-two years ago to help me navigate difficult family dynamics and my own recovery in the same manner I charted obstacles while leading exploratory whitewater river trips around the world. Shedding my troubled upbringing onto the page helped me to more compassionately see myself and my family in the context of our story of multigenerational cycles of poverty, alcoholism, trauma, and abuse. Rivers nurtured and educated me on how to survive and allowed me to travel and learn from other cultural points of view. They also led me back to my family and my true nature. I wrote this book as an act of devotion to my younger self a spirited girl from the cottonwood forest and to the legions of others like me who might find hope in my story of resilience. May T’Sencourage and guide those who feel disconnected and disempowered to reclaim their volition and place in the world.”
In Crocker’s life and work, she faced unimaginable challenges and came face to face with death.
But the rivers gave her the tools and wisdom she needed to find her way back, from addiction to strength, and to find her voice and will. And ultimately, she learned the liberating power of forgiveness. Anyone tested by life will find themselves on the pages of her riveting, unforgettable, and redemptive story.