The current issue of the literary journal Hobart is entirely devoted to travel fiction and nonfiction — including an experimental story of my own, entitled, “In Varanasi, Death is Not Something”.

This story began when I was cleaning out some old folders on my laptop and I discovered some original article drafts I’d written for travel magazines many years ago. Reading through these articles, I’d realized that some of my favorite passages had been cut from these pieces for various editing purposes, so I pasted these favorite passages into a new file. Then, almost by accident, I read through this file from beginning to end and realized that — with a bit of rearranging — these passages fell into a rhythm and progression that felt like a whole new story. The result is a little collage of a story that absurdly veers all over the globe, yet yields epiphanies and payoffs along the way.

I only recently received my contributor copies of Hobart, so I have yet to delve into all the stories — though my early favorites include Jeff Parker’s Russia-based fiction “The False Cognate”, Samantha Hunt’s wacky “A ‘B’ Plan”, and Rebecca Taylor’s interview with freelance travel writer (and World Hum contributing editor) Frank Bures.

Few of the Hobart travel stories are available online, but some content related to the travel issue an be found here, including DVD-style bonus materials, alternate endings (including a kinder ending to Jeff Parker’s tale), photo essays, outtakes, and tales from behind the scenes — including an explanation of why the passages in my story were cut from magazines like Salon, National Geographic Adventure, and Islands.