Q-and-A With Stephanie Elizondo Griest

The author of the new travel memoir Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana fields questions from Rolf Potts on his Web site. Griest talks about the challenges of life as a travel writer (largely financial), as well as the many rewards. “Traveling teaches you the inherent value of a day and the infinite possibilities each new one holds within,” she says. “Writing enables you to share the extraordinary stories of the people whose paths you cross along the way. The partnership of the two is utter bliss.” I just started the book and find it to be witty and thoughtful. The book’s cover features an appreciative blurb from the New Yorker’s John Lee Anderson. Readers in Los Angeles can see Griest this weekend. She’s appearing Saturday on a travel writing panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books— the greatest annual public gathering in the city. The panel also includes Pico Iyer, Don George and Mark Rotella.

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