W E L C O M E
This is the website for Patrick Dixon, writer. That would be me. If you're here, I appreciate your visit, and encourage you to explore. I am a retired educator, a former commercial fisherman, and an ex-Alaskan who now lives in Olympia, Washington. These days I spend most of my time writing, photographing or editing photos (you can see samples of my work on my photography website, Patrick Dixon, Fine Art Photography).
I write essays, creative nonfiction and poetry. Mostly I love writing of any kind, and have had pieces published by FISH Publishing in Ireland, the Cirque Literary Journal, Raven Chronicles and Oberon Poetry magazine, as well as by several commercial fishing trade magazines. I was the editor of the seven-volume set of Anchored in Deep Water: The FisherPoets Anthology, published in 2014. In the summer of 2015 I won the Alabama State Poetry Society Morris Memorial chapbook competition. My memoir 'WAITING to DELIVER' about commercial fishing was published in 2022. My full-length collection of fishing poetry will be published in 2025 by MoonPath Press.
TO ORDER AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF 'WAITING TO DELIVER'
email [email protected] with your order, address, phone number and how many copies you want.
I will email you back with options for payment (Venmo, PayPal or check).
$15.00 each plus shipping
email [email protected] with your order, address, phone number and how many copies you want.
I will email you back with options for payment (Venmo, PayPal or check).
$15.00 each plus shipping
Using poetry, prose and photography, Waiting to Deliver tells the story of a young man’s journey into the world of commercial fishing for salmon on the waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska. Starting as a 27-year old greenhorn schoolteacher from Indiana, Patrick Dixon works as a deckhand for two seasons before buying his own boat and permit. Through a series of missteps inspired by ignorance, inexperience and bad luck, he stumbles through twenty years of learning how to survive the dangers inherent in working on the water, nursing a perpetual sinking boat, staying afloat financially and becoming a member of a fishing community
Dixon encounters a diverse group of cannery workers and seasoned fishermen who help him develop into an accomplished skipper. He is mentored by two brothers who realize how much he doesn’t know, take him on as a project, and teach him to deal with the endless list of unexpected events and circumstances that fishing throws at him. As his knowledge, expertise and confidence grow, Dixon continues to encounter personal and professional challenges that test his ability, judgement, and patience as a skipper, friend, husband and father.
Dixon encounters a diverse group of cannery workers and seasoned fishermen who help him develop into an accomplished skipper. He is mentored by two brothers who realize how much he doesn’t know, take him on as a project, and teach him to deal with the endless list of unexpected events and circumstances that fishing throws at him. As his knowledge, expertise and confidence grow, Dixon continues to encounter personal and professional challenges that test his ability, judgement, and patience as a skipper, friend, husband and father.
