Drexel University Launches ‘The Smart Set’

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  08.09.07 | 8:04 AM ET

The online publication covers, in its own words, “culture and ideas, arts and sciences, global and national affairs—everything from literature to shopping, medicine to food, philosophy to sports.” It’s being edited by Jason Wilson—World Hum contributor, series editor of “Best American Travel Writing,” and, most enviably, a man with three—three!—dishes named after him. Its debut features stories by a number of World Hum contributors, including Emily Maloney, Tony Perottet and Rolf Potts. It’s an impressive start. I traded e-mails with Wilson and asked him a couple of questions about TheSmartSet.com.

How did The Smart Set come about?

I’d been wanting to start a new journal for some time, and a wonderful opportunity arose with Drexel University in Philadelphia, near where I live. It was extremely fortuitous. Drexel was looking to do an online publication covering arts, culture, ideas—they were looking at models like the Virginia Quarterly Review or the American Scholar and they wanted to support something that would have editorial independence. I had the idea to do something that wasn’t a boring old university literary journal. You know the type, the old Land Grant University Quarterly Review full of whatever the nation’s lesser MFA programs are currently churning out. Anyway, we came up with the idea to start a magazine that would be intelligent, but wasn’t written specifically for the academic crowd. Also, we decided there should be some sense of fun. At least a little.

For the record, we’re pro-fun. What are your plans for travel coverage?

While we’re not a travel magazine, throughout my life I’ve obviously been quite a fan of travel writing. So, we’ll be publishing a lot of it. On the site right now, we have several great travel essays: Susan Orlean on Bhutan; Rolf Potts on Paris’ Smoking Museum; Alden Jones on teaching Exoticism on Semester at Sea; Heather Waldroup in Polynesia; Emily Maloney on Dharamsala. And we’ll also have quite a bit of first-person reportage, which often have a travel element. But mainly, the travel writing we’ll run will always be narrative. No tips. No If You Go boxes.

Great concept. Best of luck with it. We’ll be reading.

Related on World Hum:
* Jason Wilson: One Traveler, Three Dishes Named ‘Jason’

Tags: Literary Travel, News and Briefs


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