by Robin Koontz
Greetings! I am Robin Koontz, and I am pleased to have been granted this space to make a special announcement: Save Our wild Salmon Coalition is about to release my children’s book about the life cycle of Pacific salmon. Autumn Spawn: A Salmon’s Journey, follows a single salmon’s life cycle – beginning with her birth and journey from stream to ocean; then her travels back upstream to her ancestral spawning grounds where she lays her eggs and eventually dies. Her journey is a story of relentless survival that has evolved over millions of years.
I am an author and/or illustrator of over a hundred books for children aged preschool and up and a Northwest Artists Against Extinction (NWAAE) collaborative artist. My partner and I have lived in the Siuslaw Watershed for over 44 years and are witness to the plight of salmon in the spawning stream on our property, spending years trying to restore the damaged habitat. I was inspired to write a poem about the life cycle of a single salmon, and recently decided to illustrate it using live-edge applique and machine quilting. I also decided to donate the book to a worthy cause for salmon habitat restoration. The thought that I might be able to use my art to contribute to the cause was one reason I kept plugging away at the project for over three years.
We are thrilled to announce Autumn Spawn is now available order on Amazon! All proceeds go to SOS. We are deeply thankful to Robin Koontz for donating this book to support SOS' work to recover salmon and steelhead in the Columbia-Snake River Basin!
You can read more about the origin story of this project on Robin's blog: Save Our Wild Salmon and Creating Autumn Spawn, A Salmon's Journey.
Learn more about NWAAE artist, Robin Koontz here.
