Travel Blog: Life of a Travel Writer
Is Max Gogarty the New Kellie Pickler?
by Eva Holland | 02.25.08 | 2:23 PM ET
Well, there may not be a video going around for this one, but a major travel blogging scandal is generating plenty of attention. The chronology, so far as I can tell, goes like this:
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Yahoo! BuzzThe JT LeRoy Saga: What’s He/She Doing Now?
by Michael Yessis | 02.22.08 | 2:36 PM ET
More than two years after Laura Albert was outed as the person behind novelist and sometime travel writer JT LeRoy, the Los Angeles Weekly’s Nancy Rommelmann caught up with her in San Francisco. It’s a fascinating story, though a long one—more than 7,400 words.
Former Punk Paul Theroux in India
by Jim Benning | 02.19.08 | 2:40 PM ET
Perhaps the most anticipated travel book this year—or at least the one I’m most looking forward to—is Paul Theroux’s Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, due out in September. It’s an account of his journey through Europe and Asia, retracing the route he followed in the 1975 classic, The Great Railway Bazaar. He’s been talking it up recently in India, popping up in press accounts here (on “human architecture”), here (on beekeeping and whether he’s “a hack”) and here (on India’s soul).
The Not-so-Romantic Life of a Lonely Planet Travel Writer
by Jim Benning | 02.14.08 | 4:35 PM ET
Says one author, “We are info dumps.”
Pico Iyer: ‘I Was Turning Japanese’
by Jim Benning | 02.13.08 | 10:27 AM ET
The prolific travel writer reflects on life in Japan and his writing career in a recent Washington Post essay: “Perhaps the greatest beauty of the writing life is that it offers you concrete evidence of all your changes; the pages you write are like those charts nurses place at the end of your bed to map your progress. Whatever you need to know about yourself is there, if only you know how to read it.”
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A With Pico Iyer: On Travel and Travel Writing
Photo by kurisuuu via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
‘A Walk in the Woods’: Robert Redford to Make Movie of Bill Bryson’s Classic Travel Book
by Michael Yessis | 02.04.08 | 4:01 PM ET
The news just broke about Redford’s renewed plans to produce and star in Bryson’s book about hiking the Appalachian Trail, A Walk in the Woods, and already the knives are out. “If made correctly, this would be the funniest movie of the year,” writes New York Magazine blog The Industry. “It will not be made correctly.” I disagree. The pieces are in place for a great adaptation.
Tanya Shaffer: Travel ‘Puts me in a State of Hyper-Awareness’
by Jim Benning | 02.01.08 | 10:25 AM ET
So says the author of Somebody’s Heart is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa and other travel-related works. The writer, performer and playwright spoke to the Santa Barbara Independent about the third annual Women’s Literary Festival, which takes place in the city Saturday, Feb. 9.
R.I.P. Transitions Abroad (Print Edition)
by Jim Benning | 01.16.08 | 3:55 PM ET
Sad news from the world of independent travel publishing: Transitions Abroad, the magazine that has promoted independent and responsible travel for 30 years, will no longer be published in printed form. The January/February issue is the last. Transitions Abroad contributor Kelly Amabile noted the decision on her Web site, and today, I dialed up outgoing editor Sherry Schwarz to ask her about it. “I’m very saddened by it,” she said. “It feels like the end of an era.” Schwarz said the death of founder and publisher Clay Hubbs last year contributed to the Hubbs family’s decision, but that the move was also based on publishing economics.
Travel Writing, Heartbreak and Granta’s 100th Issue
by Frank Bures | 01.16.08 | 11:27 AM ET
Granta‘s 100th issue is out now, and for the occasion Simon Garfield has written a fascinating account of its history in the Guardian. This is the magazine that was my first travel-writing love, and also the first to break my heart.
Rick Steves Raps: ‘Europe Through The Back Door is Pretty Much the Bomb!’
by Michael Yessis | 01.07.08 | 1:02 PM ET
Now here’s a man who knows how to annoy his kids—and who isn’t afraid of appearing “butt-clenchingly bad.” That’s one comment on his blog post containing audio of “some sick rhymes” he recorded for his daughter’s high school radio station.
David Farley on Calcata, Italy and the Search for the Holy Foreskin
by Jim Benning | 12.17.07 | 11:10 AM ET
World Hum contributor David Farley—travel writer turned foreskin detective—tells the Toronto Star all about his unlikely book project, and why he gets responses from church officials like this: “What? The Holy Foreskin? You want me to hook you up with someone at the Vatican to talk about the Holy Foreskin? No way! That’s ridiculous.”
Related on World Hum:
* Where in the World Are You, David Farley?
Big City, Bright Lights, Shady Bars
by Eva Holland | 12.14.07 | 11:17 AM ET
Something unexpected happened this week: my grown-up, travel writing present and my teenage, trashy-movie-going past collided. It turns out that the film adaptation of “Eat, Pray, Love” won’t be Elizabeth Gilbert’s first brush with Hollywood. Long before she wrote her seemingly unstoppable bestseller, she wrote a shorter piece for GQ about her early days bartending in New York City. That piece became the movie Coyote Ugly. Now, this may sound shallow to people who take their travel inspiration from Thoreau or Mark Twain or Christopher McCandless. But Coyote Ugly, silly and smutty though it may be, was still the first movie I can remember seeing that made me realize there was a wide, wild world out there, and that I needed to experience it.
Death of a Guidebook
by Jim Benning | 12.11.07 | 11:27 AM ET
Over 28 years and eight editions, Moon’s South Pacific Handbook has helped guide travelers to the region’s many scattered islands, from Easter Island to Tahiti. But in a blog post entitled South Pacific Handbook RIP, the guidebook’s author, David Stanley, laments that Avalon will not be publishing a ninth edition.
New Travel Book: ‘Worth the Detour’
by Frank Bures | 12.10.07 | 10:41 AM ET
Full title: “Worth the Detour: A History of the Guide Book”
Author: Nicholas Parsons
Released: Nov. 25, 2007
Travel genre: History of travel
Territory covered: The world
New Travel Book: ‘Marco Polo’
by Michael Yessis | 12.04.07 | 7:13 AM ET
Full title: “Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu”
Author: Laurence Bergreen, who also wrote “Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe” and biographies of Al Capone and Irving Berlin.
Released: Oct. 23, 2007
Travel genre: Historical footstep following
Territory covered: The Silk Road from, uh, Venice to Xanadu
