Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro just attended the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California. He was on the conference faculty and is writing about the gathering for World Hum.
“There were vast distances between punch lines,” a Florida newspaper wrote about Tim Cahill’s address at last January’s Key West Literary Seminar. So Cahill wrote to this unkind reporter and informed him he had a speech impediment. Cahill even had friends write to the reporter and tell him the same thing. So the reporter published a letter of apology and Cahill wrote again to inform him of the nature of his impediment: he grew up in Wisconsin and speaks slowly. Cahill’s remarks came Sunday at Book Passage during the conference’s closing panel, “Humor and Travel Writing.” Rolf Potts once called Cahill “the most disheveled non-homeless person I’ve ever met.” During Sunday’s panel Cahill retorted: “How does he know I have a home?”

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Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro just attended the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California. He was on the conference faculty and is writing about the gathering for World Hum.
It would be Mick Jagger’s dream job. Drew Barrymore would like to be one too. Both have said that if they could choose another profession, it would be travel writing. They’re not the only ones. About 140 aspiring travel writers and photographers packed Book Passage last week to learn the tools of the trade. Halfway through the four-day event, I joined a panel entitled “Making a Living as a Freelance Writer.”

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Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro just attended the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California. He was on the conference faculty and is writing about the gathering for World Hum.
One of the joys of teaching at the Book Passage Travel Writers Conference is the chance to drop in on classes during your downtime. On Saturday morning John Flinn invited me to visit his advanced travel writing class. Flinn is the executive travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and a graduate of the University of Bill Bryson and Tim Cahill. 

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Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro just attended the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California. He was on the conference faculty and is writing about the gathering for World Hum.
Almost every city and town in Europe and Latin America has a central square. Call it a plaza, zocalo, or village green, it’s a place where people gather, swap stories, and connect with one another. Most North American cities lack these central gathering spots, but Corte Madera, a town just north of San Francisco at the foot of Mount
Tamalpais, has a piazza in the most unlikely of places.

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Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro is in Corte Madera, California for the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference. He’s on the conference faculty and is writing about the gathering for World Hum.
I first met Amy Tan last September, at a benefit for New Orleans’ residents who were suffering from the ravages of Katrina. Tan and her husband arrived with a couple of Yorkies, each well-behaved dog in its own little basket. She was one of two dozen San Francisco Bay Area writers last year who turned up on a moment’s notice to read at Book Passage.

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Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro is in Corte Madera, California for the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference. He’s on the conference faculty and is writing about the gathering for World Hum.
Adventure writer and humorist Tim Cahill joined Travelers’ Tales editor Jennifer Leo last night to launch Leo’s latest collection of travel humor stories, What Color is Your Jockstrap? They appeared at Book Passage on the eve of the annual four-day Travel Writers & Photographers Conference. As the event began, Leo confessed to feeling a bit flustered appearing alongside her literary hero. Over a decade ago, after graduating college and biking across the country, she stumbled across Cahill’s Outside magazine story “The Howling,” a tale about a dazzling Northern Lights display in Alaska. Leo said she still remembers the picture of an illuminated golden tent under the shimmering skies. 

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Editor’s note: Travel writer Michael Shapiro is in Corte Madera, California for the annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference, which begins tomorrow. He’s on the conference faculty, and he’ll be writing about the gathering in the coming days for World Hum.
Back in 1992, at the conclusion of the first Book Passage Travel Writers Conference, I walked onto the sun-splashed plaza outside the bookstore. There I saw renowned Welsh author Jan Morris having lunch with (then) San Francisco Examiner Travel Editor Don George and bookstore owner Elaine Petrocelli. One seat remained at their table. After hesitating for a moment, I approached them and stammered, “Do you mind … would it be OK…”

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