Who Are America’s ‘Best Describers’?

Photo by helmet13, via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Jon Marshall asks, “Which newspaper writers are the best at describing people and places?” He nominates three terrific writers—Jeffrey Fleishman of the Los Angeles Times, Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times, and Dan Barry of the New York Times—but not one of them writes for the travel pages. Too bad. Newspaper travel sections are enduring tough times, but there are still some terrific describers toiling around the country. They deserve some shout outs.

I’ll start with a couple people we’ve linked to many times over the years, Tom Haines of the Boston Globe and Chris Welsch of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. And I’ll grandfather in two who are no longer in the newspaper game, Catherine Watson and Tom Swick.

Share your favorite describers from the newspaper travel pages and links in the comments below.

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