The River’s Bend Sessions

Winner of the 2025 Gina Berriault
Work-In-Progress Award, Fourteen Hills

Johanna Clark’s parents have created a paradise with River’s Bend Studios, nestled in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains. It’s the summer of 1992, Johanna is almost sixteen, and Dean Callahan is by far the most infamous musician who’s ever come to work with her father. Fresh out of rehab after the breakup of his high-profile band, he’s determined to make a solo album that will earn him respect. He’s brought along his estranged son, Lou, but it’s Johanna he pulls into the studio, and she quickly falls under his spell.

Twenty-nine years later, Lou releases his father’s recordings. Johanna receives no warning, though her name is in the credits, her vocal and piano parts are all over the tracks, and the listening public quickly reaches the conclusion her father never did — that the songs are about her.