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I am recently returned home (Australia) from six months on a music research project in Cambodia. There were, of course, the practical challenges of the type I quite expected. In the monsoonal downpours, getting around in central Phnom Penh meant wading through knee-deep, dead-rat kind of drain-water. In the thatched huts of the provinces, malarial critters droned their way under my net by night. Gastro and heat exhaustion laid me flat.

The post Revitalising Cambodian traditional performing arts for social change appeared first on OUPblog.

Travel bloggers have different ideas on what they've done to set themselves apart--meet 14 travel bloggers who share their branding secrets. Travel writing and blogging is an enormous field--Google brings up 399,000,000 results for the term "travel blog" alone. Travel writers who try to cover it "all" end up with a little bit of content to suit a lot of people a little bit of the time. That translates into few regular readers.

The post 14 Travel Bloggers Share their Branding Secrets appeared first on Linda Aksomitis.

At the height of his career - during the time he was writing Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend - Dickens wrote a series of sketches, mostly set in London, which he collected as The Uncommercial Traveller. The persona of the 'Uncommercial' allowed Dickens to unify his series of occasional articles by linking them through a shared narrator.

The post Dickens’ fascination with London [map] appeared first on OUPblog.

I keep meaning to mention that Best American Travel Writing 2015 is out and, as promised, it includes my short NYT Mag essay, “A Doubter in the Holy Land.” I’ve been reading my way through the collection and finding so many great things I missed when they were published last year, including Rachael Maddux’s “Hail Daton.”

Today my friend Sarah Smarsh told me that my Harper’s essay, “America’s Ancestry Craze,” is listed as a notable essay at the back of the new Best American Essays. (Her great essay on the shame of poor teeth in a rich world is, too.) This is gratifying, because the Harper’s essay led to the book I’m writing, which in turn has led to my inability to write much of anything else until it’s done. Not complaining! It’s just nice to know people are still reading my older stuff.

After I hand in a rough-rough draft of my current book chapter, I’m planning to start on the one that’s most related to the Lives essay. I’ve been reading widely for months in preparation, and I’ll also go back and reread everything linked from my 2014 Begats post on whether faith “has a genetic basis.”

When people learn that I recently spent a long summer riding 2,000 miles across the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon pulled by mules, they invariably ask the same question: "How did the adventure change you?" Unspoken, but deep implications are embedded in that question, especially from family and friends. Maybe I have stopped drinking [...]

Travel writing, surprisingly, is a genre that’s been around since at least the 2nd century AD when Pausanias wrote the Description of Greece. Narrative travel stories and travel diaries gained wide popularity during the Song Dynasty in medieval China, and of course, the English classic by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, has been continuously in print […]
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Solnit is one of the most eloquent, urgent, and intelligent voices writing nonfiction today; from Men Explain Things to Me to Storming the Gates of Paradise, anything she's written is well worth reading. But her marvelous book of essays A Field Guide to Getting Lost might be her most poetic, ecstatic work. Field Guide is [...]

Surprisingly few people have heard of Amelia Edwards. Archaeologists know her as the founder of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, set up in 1882, and the Department of Egyptology at University College London, created in 1892 through a bequest on her death. The first Edwards Professor, Flinders Petrie, was appointed on Amelia’s recommendation and her name is still attached to the Chair of Egyptian Archaeology.

The post Who was Amelia Edwards? appeared first on OUPblog.

When cult film icon John Waters decides to hitchhike across the country, expect the unexpected to happen. This blend of fiction and travel memoir features all the wit and dark humor Waters is known for, with a dose of filth thrown in for good measure. Books mentioned in this post Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes... John [...]

I was tearing up a Zambian highway on my white Honda “Dream” when it hit me.

I thought it was mud.

A convoy of trucks thundering past in the opposite direction was kicking up debris. Even after the last tanker had passed, the flak was stinging my hands and face.

What the hell—that mud?—bees! I was plastered in bees.

I’m telling you this story because I love the road and the dire straits into which a journey often leads. If you’re like me you love to hop aboard a good road story and be taken for a ride.

Bees! I was riding headlong into a swarm. They were inside my shirt. They were up my nose and in my ears and stinging my skull. How could they be biting my skill? I was wearing a helmet. I yanked the clasp and jettisoned the thing before I came to a stop.

Where they came from, I have no idea, but I was immediately surrounded by children.

They didn’t ask permission to debug me, just began pulling them out of my hair, out of my ears. They pulled one off my eye, which was swelling. These kids swatted bees off my back and off my thighs. They were inside my khaki shorts, for god’s sake. They were inside my mouth. My lips were swelling. I had to do something, and quickly.

Africans have a saying: If the snake bites you within sight of your village rooftops, you will die. The victim dashes home, I guess, pumping the venom to the heart. You get bitten far from home, however, and you have nowhere to run. You will stay put and do the right thing.

Though my heart was racing, I could feasibly ride the motorcycle without making things worse. I thanked the kids and sped back toward the city. At home I slathered calamine lotion over the worst swelling before lying on my bed. Calm down, I told myself, just breathe. I felt no panic, no sense of tragedy at the prospect of dying. No regrets.

Here I was in Africa living a dream. I worked the rivers, measured their flow when hippos would allow it. For two years I crisscrossed that high dry plateau by Land Rover, camping out most nights lulled to sleep by the sounds of deep nature on the prowl. I earned my pilot’s licence flying a Cessna 172, shot my 8 mm movies, and rode that Honda almost to death. I was 22 years old.

I lay as still as death. Is this what the Sufis advocate—to die before you die?

I’ve been lucky for the “still as death” moments that life has forced upon me. I’ve learned how to cultivate such moments but back then I was dependent upon bad luck to trip me up and pin me down. I hope you know what I’m talking about.

We normally operate from a sense of being a physical-emotional-thinking entity. That’s us, the subject of our everyday lives. Then we’re brought suddenly and against our will to a full stop and an amazing thing happens. I’m lying there fully aware of “myself” in all its physical-emotional-thinking-ness. But if I can see it, then what is this subjectivity that’s aware of it?

Who am “I,” really?

The question creates a vast space in which time seems not to exist, but the clock on the wall showed that an hour had passed while my condition had not worsened, so I checked my physical self in the mirror. I would be okay. I remember starting to laugh.

I’m telling you this story because I have a vault full of road stories that might add up to a travel book one day. I was mentioning this publishing possibility to an old friend and without hesitation he instructed me to begin with the bees. It’s a short story which not only doesn’t get very far but then I hurry home. What kind of travel story is that?

Long or short, the key to a good road story is that it distances the protagonist from who he or she mistakenly thinks they are. That would be the point of a story, wouldn’t it? We leave home in the hope that we might reach closer to who we really are.

I recently riffed on “road stories” for Patrick Ross over on his The Artist’s Road website. “Road Stories—Why We Like to Be Taken for a Ride.” Check it out.

And let me know in the comments below if you’re the kind of reader who is willing to be taken for a ride. I promise you that my next story will take us miles beyond sight of our village rooftops.

Ahead of a trip, many of us gravitate toward books that depict the history and culture of our travel destination. But it can work the other way around, too. Sometimes a book provides such a powerful sense of place that we find ourselves longing to visit the area we read about. Some of us even [...]

Julia Cooke's fascinating The Other Side of Paradise is a sobering read, but it is also deeply sympathetic and remarkably apolitical. Cooke offers detailed portraits of everyday lives, as well as of her own experiences living in Havana, and allows the reader to develop his own opinions of the Castro brothers' regimes and American–Cuban relations. [...]

A deadly storm striking tragedy on unsuspecting climbers isn't subject matter I would typically expect to inspire adventure. Yet Jon Krakauer's riveting account of a disastrous 1999 ascent of Mt. Everest did just that. At its heart, this outstanding book thrillingly recounts an ill-fated and deadly climb. But the remarkable reportage also captures the striking [...]

With wit and infectious curiosity, Mark Adams takes us on a journey to find Atlantis. He sifts through the evidence, the contradictions, the wild claims of fellow obsessives. What he unearths are the rich jewels of history and lore, as he pays tribute to man's thirst for knowledge. Books mentioned in this post Meet Me [...]

Ever since President Obama's December announcement that the United States is resuming full diplomatic ties with Cuba, the Powell's buyers' office has been suffering from an epidemic of reverse island fever. It turns out that almost all of us harbor a secret desire to visit Cuba. Some of us want to eat lobster, swim in [...]

Gardens do not wait. Weeds grow and flowers wilt. In the days and weeks following my father's death, my parents' garden continued to flourish and demand our attention, for plants do not know grief. When it came to our garden, my parents were a team. My father — dyslexic, spatial thinker, and dreamer — looked [...]

Truly a great adventure story, Sides's thrilling tale of the 1879 polar expedition of the USS Jeannette left me slack-jawed and wide-eyed. Vividly experience the grim, harrowing journey into a frozen world and discover the fate of the heroic crew determined to survive. Impossible to put down, this book has award winner written all over [...]

Indonesia is interesting in its own right, but in Elizabeth Pisani's joyful hands, this improbable nation of 13,466 islands spanning over 3,300 miles becomes a fascinating cautionary tale about the benefits, limits, and dangers of enforcing a national identity. Pisani has spent many years living and working in Indonesia, and her historical and political insights [...]

Pithead Chapel is a monthly online journal of short fiction and nonfiction.

We’re currently seeking gutsy narratives up to 4,000 words, and are particularly interested in essays (personal, memoir, lyric, travel, experimental, hybrid, etc.).

Please visit our website to learn more about us and our submission guidelines.

Pithead Chapel is a monthly online journal of short fiction and nonfiction.

We’re currently seeking gutsy narratives up to 4,000 words, and are particularly interested in essays (personal, memoir, lyric, travel, experimental, etc.) that move.

Please visit our website to learn more about us and our submission guidelines.

The editors of Conte, an online journal of narrative writing founded in 2005, announce an open submissions call for poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for our eighteenth issue, slated for publication in Winter 2012-2013. Recent contributors include Norman Dubie, Erika Meitner, Bruce Weigl, Robert Wrigley, Sandy Longhorn, Jim Daniels, Nin Andrews, Thorpe Moeckel, and E. Ethelbert Miller, among others.

Visit our website for specific guidelines and past issues. We accept simultaneous submissions through Submittable and strive to respond in three months or less. We look forward to reading your work!

A Checklist for Marketing

1. You can’t write for it if you haven’t read it. Go to the local library or newsstand and seek out the publications
2. No one starts at the top. Find your own level, work in it, then work up out of it.
3. Start with local newspapers and magazines, small publications, regional travel magazines, and publications with a small editorial staff. Write for your high school or college paper, the alumni magazine, a community newspaper. Use the experience to tackle more complex writing projects for broader publications.
4. Don’t give your work away. If the publication doesn’t offer a fee, ask for a subscription, free advertising, or printing services in exchange for your articles. No matter how small the honorarium or in-kind service, you’ll feel better if you receive something for your work and you’ll be respected for your professionalism.

*This excerpt is from from Travel Writing by L. Peat O’Neil. Worth looking into if you want to become a freelance or professional travel writer.

Learn To Play The What-If Game
(Guest post by Barbara Conelli)

From Margo: I am so honored to have Barbara Conelli guest post with this wonderfully inspiring essay on turning around those annoying, negative WHAT IF questions and making them positive. Anyone can benefit from this post! She is using the book she wrote, Chique Secrets of Dolce Amore, to its fullest potential and living the best life she can!

To celebrate her latest book about loving life in Italy, she is offering great prizes. Here’s what you need to know before you read her post about those WHAT-IF questions.

1. A downloadable gift bag for every person who comments on this blog! (I love this idea!) So, what is a downloadable gift bag? You will receive this just for commenting (please leave your email address, so we can send these to you): Chique Virtual Tour: The Secret Gems of Italy Every Woman Must Know, First five chapters of Chique Secrets of Dolce Vita (her first book), First five chapters of Chique Secrets of Dolce Amore (her current book), Chique Blog Tour Special Gift (Only for the tour!): E-Book: The Most Romantic Chique Places to Fall in Love in (and with) Milan. (If you are a lover of Italy, leave a comment!)

2. Every person who leaves a comment will also be entered into a larger drawing for 1 Chique Journal (contest open internationally). Please leave your comment before 8:00 pm CST on Sunday, 7/1 for your chance to win. Comments can be questions, something about the what-if game, thoughts on Italy, pick me, etc.

3. Barbara is doing a bunch of fun stuff with her blog tour this summer, plus she has a book trailer video and more. Check out all the contests, book trailer, her website, etc, by going to WOW!’s blog and reading these two posts: Summer in Italy Contests and blog tour launch.

Don’t skip this article below. It’s wise!

From Barbara on the What-If game!

There are a few words I left out of my vocabulary many years ago, when I realized my verbal habits were my biggest creative roadblocks: I can’t. I should – I shouldn’t. I have to. And the most toxic verbal turn-off: WHAT IF.

For some reason, our ego, traditionally threatened by dreams, visions, aspirations, and creative endeavors of all kinds, seems to thrive on what-if scenarios. They are the fastest tool your inner gremlin uses when it wants you to fall off the wagon, hide under the duvet and cry, delete the new chapter, burn the submission package, cut your hair and swear off high heels.

“What if I’m no good? What if it doesn’t work out? What if my book doesn’t sell? What if I never make it? What if I can’t write? What if everyone hates my story? What if I get the worst reviews in history? What if my family gets upset?”

When your mind decides to play this dirty trick, it hurts. It stings.

By Kayleen Reusser

[Did you know I now pay $50 for guest posts? —Linda]

A few years ago, my husband and I rode the Discovery Riverboat on the Chena River near Fairbanks, Alaska. As a freelance travel writer, I’m always on the lookout for stories and interesting experiences. During the relaxing and informative three-hour trip, I took pages of notes and shot dozens of photos.

Upon our return, I queried my Features editor at the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel newspaper. Prior to the trip, the editor had not run travel stories, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

The gamble paid off. He had just received permission from the publisher to begin a weekly travel section. My article on the Discovery Riverboat was the first article for the column, complete with three of my photos used to illustrate the article. Over the next couple of years the same editor used dozens of my travel articles.

The best thing about travel writing is you don’t have to live in a beautiful place like Alaska or Hawaii to write travel articles (though it doesn’t hurt!) Fascinating places and events are everywhere. The travel writer’s mission is to be observant and record unique qualities about an area or event so readers will want to go there or at least wish they could.

Here are four ways to land travel writing gigs by thinking beyond been-there-done-that destinations and events.

1. Start local.

Start with where you live. Is a famous landmark nearby? The Johnny Appleseed Festival held each September in Fort Wayne, Indiana, hosts a festival in a park where the famous fruit bearer is buried.

As morbid as it sounds, this event has become one of the highest-attending festivals in the Midwest. It also became the lede for my article that sold to Good Reading Magazine:

“In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a lone grave sits atop a hill in the middle of an empty field. It remains quietly undisturbed during the year until the third weekend in September. Then, more than 250,000 people converge on the area surrounding the grave, paying tribute to the man buried there who gave his life to helping others.”

Attending the festival provided me with loads of sensory details for description so readers could imagine being at the event: noisy cannons firing in the midst of a Civil War military encampment, scents of apple dumplings baking in food booths, children winding through a straw maze, women dressed in mob caps and calico dresses spinning wool under shady oaks.

Capper’s Magazine bought a reprint of the article. A few years later, a blurb about the Johnny Appleseed Festival appeared in my round-up story about area festivals for a Fort Wayne Magazine cover story.

2. Go beyond destinations.

A travel article can also center on a building. Upon returning from a visit to eastern Montana, I queried the editor of Cowboys and Country magazine with a round-up of possible article ideas. He voiced interest in a profile of a restaurant in Billings called The Rex. The building dated to the late 1800s when Buffalo Bill Cody’s chef established an eatery in the Wild West.

My focus was on the history of the place, but the restaurant’s specialty — Montana-raised Rosemary Roasted Buffalo — was a big mention. The editor liked the historic angle and menu details and published the article.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, a travel article can also be about a person. Gene Stratton-Porter was a popular nature novelist who lived in Indiana during the early