‘How Does Travel Inform Writing?’

The Sicily Papers author Michelle Orange fields that question in a Q&A at The Virginia Quarterly Review. Here’s the last part of her answer:

You’re tested constantly, you get to see what you’re made of, you spend a lot of time literally trying to understand the people around you—in a way all of the metaphors of life are amplified—and then you grapple with a way to communicate what you have learned and seen and felt. I used to feel more at home or at peace among strangers, and I’m losing that, which is probably a good thing personally—there can be an unhappy measure of cultivating your “aloneness” to it—although not as great professionally. I think travel provides a particular frame for the question all good writing struggles to answer: What is it like to be here, to be human?

Orange also has a piece in the summer issue of VQR, Beirut Rising. Only the first part is available online.

World Hum contributor Tom Bissell also has a piece in the issue that’s partially available online, Looking for Judas.

©2026 World Hum, All Rights Reserved