"There is nothing I love more than traveling to a place where I know nobody, and where everything will be a surprise, and then writing about it." --Ariel Levy, " Thanksgiving in Mongolia ," The New Yorker , November 18, 2013

"What raises travel writing to literature is not what the writer brings to a place, but what a place brings out of the writer." --William Zinsser, in They Went: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing (1991)

Some writer once said; “There are only two stories: man goes on a journey; or stranger comes to town.” Some other writer said; “Those are the same story.” The quotes above have been attributed to writers as diverse as Dostoevsky and John Gardner. Despite their flippancy, there’s an undeniable verisimilitude there – a sense that...

Photo Credit: TeryKats via Compfight cc Perhaps I never would have met the Iranian had it not been for the influenza epidemic raging across Europe at the time. Because of the flu, Larnaca — a holiday beach town on the southern coast of Cyprus — was nearly empty of tourists. I was walking along the...

"Travel writing is perishable. I find that when I'm reading a book of bygone travels I become irritated with curiosity about what the place is like today -- can you still swim in the river, as the writer did? Can you still eat the fish? Are the houses still roofed with thatch? This problem has...

Before you get to the right angle, you might find yourself stuck in a dangerous corner/ picture by Kit Yeng Chan The email you have been waiting for a long time has finally landed in your inbox. Fat, juicy, inviting bold caps lure your eyes in. It’s no matter of life or death, but if...

I first read Vagabonding in 2006, when we were in the throes of planning what we expected to be a one year trip. I was devouring everything I could find for inspiration, looking for the tools I needed as we grappled with breaking free from a very "normal" American life and plunging into the unknown,...

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. — Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of...

"China is easier to write about than Cheyenne, Leningrad easier than Louisville. But to see Cheyenne and Louisville written about well, to see the dailiness of America brought to life with freshness and humor, is to watch one of the hardest high-wire acts in travel writing." --William Zinsser, They Went: The Art and Craft of...

Some Lines Scrawled on the Door of Vagabond’s House by Don Blanding West of the sunset stands my house, There... and east of the dawn; North to the Arctic runs my yard; South to the Pole, my lawn; Seven seas are to sail my ships To the ends of the earth... beyond; Drifters’ gold is...

I’m an avid reader. I’ve long made it a practice to choose books that followed my journeys. It’s a wonderful way to add depth and richness to my own experiences and observations, and to see the world through more eyes, more lives, than just my own. Last summer I found myself on parade of bumpy...

"For the personal, subjective nature of [travel] literature has always been one of its chief and most endearing elements, no matter how often some readers and critics through the ages have tried to eliminate it from all travel accounts as undesirable, or have failed to find it except in those published after the supposed rise...

I take this week's chance to announce the release of the second issue of Wicked World , a digital magazine project that dares to be different. Unrestricted by commercial considerations, it remains free to challenge, question, and tell the truth about the business of international travel. We’re not here to sell expensive guided tours, round-the-world...

"The act of writing organizes how I spend my time when I arrive in a place. It gives me information, concentrates my thoughts, and opens doors I wouldn't otherwise be allowed to knock on." --William Zinsser, “The Road to Timbuktu: Why I Travel,” American Scholar , Winter 1997

“Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, the key. You still know where you are. Everything is familiar except that there...

"I think increasingly with globalization the job of the travel writer has to be to try and peel back the surface impression of globalization and to reveal the much more complex reality. It seems to me in a sense an almost paradigmatic illustration of what a travel writer can still do today. Today there is...

Nancy has done the impossible. And I don’t mean cycling from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina over three years with twin boys who broke the Guinness World record for youngest persons to cycle the continents. That’s entirely doable, as is clearly evident by their success. The impossible is encapsulating the scope of that epic...

"Tell most people you're a travel writer and you'll be greeted with exclamations of envy. Ask them to name a travel book they've recently read and, almost inevitably, you'll be met with silence." --Thomas Swick, " Are Travel Writers the New Poets? " World Hum , October 24, 2011

"A good travel writer can give you the warp and weft of everyday life, the generalities of people's existence that are rarely reflected in journalism, and hardly touched on by any other discipline. Despite the internet and the revolution in communications, there is still no substitute." --Colin Thubron, quoted in " Home truths on abroad...

A few nights ago, I sat in the audience at the Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference , listening to Andrew McCarthy talk about his transition from actor to travel writer. One of his comments about travel stood out in particular: “I love that feeling of going, it makes me feel a...