Photo credit: Adam Foss

Photo credit: Adam Foss

 

Reid Bryant believes in the written word. In his experience, nothing has the lasting value of a well-crafted piece of writing. He works steadily to learn the craft, and so doing to tell stories, to teach skills, or simply to grab a hold of moments so that he can look at them more closely.

Reid lives on a hill above the Mettawee River in Dorset, Vermont. After nearly fifteen years as a farmer and a teacher in central Massachusetts, Reid took a job with the Orvis Company, specifically working on various facets of Orvis’ hunting and shooting businesses. In this capacity, he manages far more days afield than he likely deserves. He shares this fortunate life with his wife Kim, a coffee roaster/angler/naturalist/mystic, and two freckle-faced daughters named Willa Wren and Nell Harper. Three poorly trained bird dogs, three cats, two tortoises, and an endless parade of down-on-their-luck wild critters fill the spaces in between.

Reid has traveled a good deal in recent years, often with a rod or a gun. He documents his adventures, the people and places he encounters, in outlets such as Shooting Sportsman (for which he is an Editor at Large), Covey Rise Magazine, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Gundog Magazine, American Angler, The Drake, and The Fly Fish Journal. He is the author of The Orvis Guide to Upland HuntingTraining Bird Dogs with Ronnie Smith Kennels, and The Incomparable Ponoi: A History. He can be heard as the host of the Orvis Hunting and Shooting podcast, which allows him to speak with true experts, and to explore his thoughts and questions.