No Do-Overs In Paradise: Journeys Through Wild Places and Inner Landscapes | Stephen Collector | Introduction by Terry McDonell | $25 | 9781948509732 | 324p w/84 photographs | Release 10/4/2026
Early Praise:
“No Do-Overs in Paradise is an infectious account of Stephen Collector’s sporting life and unabashed passion for life under wild skies. A propulsive ride through the outdoor games we play to keep us point-blank with nature.”
—Tom McGuane, author, Ninety-Two in the Shade and The Longest Silence
“Stephen Collector has spent his career photographing fascinating people in beautiful places. No Do-Overs will give readers a serious case of envy.”
—Jamie Harrison, author, The Widow Nash
“It is entirely possible that with this splendid book, Stephen Collector may be rightly crowned the new bearer of an American sporting renaissance. To mix a metaphor, he covers all the bases—from fly fishing for trout to fly fishing for tarpon; from wing shooting to big game hunting; from commercial photography to sporting and fine art photography… all while taking no prisoners along the way. This is a man in love with and obsessively yearning for open spaces, nature in the field, forest, and mountains. A beautiful landscape from start to finish.”
—Jim Fergus, author, A Hunter’s Road and One Thousand White Women
“Stephen Collector’s No Do-Overs in Paradise paints a broad and vivid picture of a life spent outdoors. Whether chasing quail, grouse, bonefish, or brook trout, this collection brings you along for the ride, both visually and lyrically. For a man who has made his living primarily as a photographer, Collector shows a rare writing talent, especially when describing surreal landscapes from Alaska to the Florida Keys. Yet the finest chapters in this book come when Collector combines these skills—matching iconic portraits of legendary sportmen like Russell Chatham, Jim Harrison, and Tom McGuane with keen observations shared in exceptional surroundings.”
—Tom Bie, The Drake magazine
“No Do-Overs in Paradise describes the soldier of Stephen Collector perfectly. This book is a compelling blend of literary history, dogs, hunting, and fishing in the American West in a time and way of living, not so long ago, but which seems increasingly rare, almost inaccessible, so busy have so many of us become. This book is an artifact of sanity.”
—Rick Bass, author, For A Little While and Why I Came West
“Stephen Collector’s many fans will delight in these adventures.”
—Annie Proulx, author, Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News
“This is a book to be savored like a glass of good brandy. With an eye for beauty and meaning, Stephen Collector celebrates the American West — its peaks, swift cold streams, hidden valleys, rushing rivers, and dry grasslands. It’s a book I’ll return to often for the magic it weaves out of the landscape, abundant wildlife, and the special characters who inhabit this very special place. It’s a book that comes from the heart.”
—Lou Ureneck, author, Backcast and Cabin
“Stephen Collector’s No Do-Overs in Paradise is a delight to the eye and the sporting mind, a treasure of images and stories to take you from your reading chair to the streams, fields, and flats of your desires.”
—Dan Gerber, author, Sailing through Cassiopeia and A Primer on Parallel Lives
“Stephen Collector understands something many contemporary writers have forgotten: wild places do not exist merely to be admired. They are places where we come face to face with ourselves. In No Do-Overs in Paradise, the hunt, the landscape, the campfire, and the kitchen table become places where we remember what matters. Beneath these essays runs a simple understanding: none of us gets out of here alive. Collector reminds us to savor what is here while we can—the hunt, the meal, the wine shared among friends, and the stories that linger long after the plates are cleared. A gifted photographer and writer, Collector pays close attention to the world. His photographs and essays celebrate both the beauty of wild places and the fleeting nature of our time within them. In these pages, he carries forward the tradition of the great sportsmen writers, photographers, and artists who came before him. This is a book to savor.”
—Brad Wetzler, author, Into the Soul of the World
“Although I write ‘outdoor’ books myself, I rarely read them, because so many are uninspiring and repetitive. Hence my delight when I received an early look at Stephen Collector’s wonderful new No Do-Overs in Paradise. His treatment of my own favorite topics—wing-shooting, fly-fishing, gun dogs—reflects passion as well as knowledge and experience. However, it’s his observations on the people and places that make the outdoor life so special, which elevate the book far above the usual standards of the genre. Although best known as one of our premier outdoor and sporting photographers, his prose is wonderful and leaves this reader eager for more. The black and white photos, complimenting the text, would be worth the cover price on their own. As one never known for restraint, I’ll go on record now and call this one an instant classic.”
—E. Donnall Thomas Jr., author, On the Wing: A Lifetime Afield with Shotgun and Dogs & The Double Helix
“Stephen Collector’s book is unique: it’s a spirited and intimate catalog of the writers and artists of contemporary America.”
—Stephen Bodio, author, Querencia
“Stephen Collector is a fine visual artist who has graced us for decades with his black and white photographs of dogs and famous sportsmen, some still with us, others gone. Now he shows us his writing skills in four seasons of tramping the wild country for fish and game. Thanks to Terry McDonell, our greatest literary prospector, for his introduction to the book.”
—Doug Peacock, author, Was It Worth It: A Wilderness Warrior’s Long Trail Home & Grizzly Years
“Part travel narrative, part outdoor memoir, and part meditation on the natural world, these essays remind us why we venture outdoors in the first place. Thoughtful, literate, and yes, a bit raw.”
—Jim Pruett, publisher of John Gierach’s masterpiece, Trout Bum
Praise for Collector’s Law of the Range: “From the moment I saw the first few photographs in what was to become the Law of the Range: Portraits of Old-Time Brand Inspectors, I knew the project was of lasting artistic and historical value, and would remain in print indefinitely, becoming in the end a solid icon of the West. This has come to pass.”
—Russell Chatham, author, Dark Waters and The Angler’s Coast
“An engaging and wide-ranging book that fully captures the many pleasures of the natural world.”
—David Coggins, author, The Optimist
About the book: Stephen Collector’s No Do-Overs In Paradise is a collection of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that many of us could only dream of. His work as a professional photographer has taken him front and center to many of the most remarkable sporting locations the western hemisphere has to offer. He shared time with Legends of the Fall author Jim Harrison, dined and cooked at Jimmy Buffett’s home in Key West, witnessed the indigenous wisdom of a Cheyenne medicine woman in Montana, fished countless famed Western trout waters, and so much more. These enchanting essays, along with many of his award-winning photographs, cover all four seasons of the sporting year. Collector captures all the thrills, the disappointments, and the remarkable lessons this world has to pass on to each of us.
Stephen Collector was born in Virginia in 1951. After attending George Washington University for two years, he transferred to the University of Colorado in 1971. A longtime freelance photographer, his book of Stock Detectives, Law of the Range: Portraits of Old-Time Brand Inspectors was published in 1991 by Clark City Press, Livingston, Montana. His feature writing has appeared in The Drake, Anglers Journal, American Angler, The Big Sky Journal, Tail Fly Fishing, Quail Forever Journal, Modern Huntsman, and The Pointing Dog Journal. His photographs have been widely exhibited throughout the West. Collector, who resides in Boulder, Colorado, is a lifelong sportsman. See his website
Terry McDonell is a veteran editor, author, and media executive best known for leading some of America’s great sporting and outdoor magazines, including Outside and Sports Illustrated. His four-decade career earned him a place in the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame, and his memoir The Accidental Life drew on a lifetime spent working alongside some of the most celebrated writers in American letters. See his website
Events being planned: Release at the Mountains and Plains Booksellers FallCon, Denver, Colorado, in October.