Book Passage Travel Writers Conference 2009

The annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference kicks off Thursday in lovely Corte Madera, just north of San Francisco. Given the tumult in the publishing world, this year should be interesting, to say the least. The faculty lineup is impressive, as always, including such writers and editors as Tim Cahill, Jen Leo, Rolf Potts, Spud Hilton, John Flinn, Phil Cousineau, Pauline Frommer, Larry Habegger, Michael Shapiro and Wendy Perrin.

I’ll be teaching a three-hour class each morning on Travel Writing in the Digital Age. We’ll cover everything from blogging to producing audio slideshows to writing personal essays and web-friendly articles. And we’ll dig into the business side of things. Jen Leo and Rolf Potts have promised to pop in to offer their perspective.

I just talked to conference organizer Don George, who tells me they’ll be accepting sign-ups up until the conference begins. So if you’re still considering attending, it’s not too late to do so. I can say from personal experience it’s incredibly fun and inspirational. It’s one of the few conferences I know of where travel literature and great writing is really celebrated. And the setting is intimate and inviting. It often feels like a gathering of friends (which, in many cases, of course, it is).

Among the conference’s alumni is our own Eva Holland, who I met for the first time there two years ago.

Here’s what she just told me about her Book Passage experience:

“I guess I remember expecting to be really intimidated, but finding everyone—from the other students to the best-known faculty—so welcoming. I liked the mix of classroom time with social time, too—I think I got just as much out of the casual chats over meals and drinks as I did in the formal workshops.”

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