Shirley from a Small Place
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Matt Dillon
Michelle Tea
‘Michelle had learned a valuable lesson: Do not leave the house unless you look ready to meet Matt Dillon.’ From the novel Black Wave.
The Book of the Dead
Orikuchi Shinobu
A gothic tale of love between a noblewoman and a ghost in eighth century Japan, translated by Jeffrey Angles.
Chanel Nº 5
Victor Lodato
‘The liquid tingled, a subtle electrification, as the scent changed, bloomed, became an extension of the boy himself.’
Karan Mahajan | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Karan Mahajan
‘Too often, a kind of travel writing – especially the novel set abroad in an exotic locale – feels like a way of allegorizing and escaping problems at home.’
Since Everything Was Suddening Into A Hurricane
Binyavanga Wainaina
After a sudden stroke, Binyavanga Wainaina and his lover travel to Nairobi to reconcile with his father.
Crossing Borders
Carys Davies
Carys Davies on how the settlement of the American West can help us understand Donald Trump’s nativism.
Hilditch & Key
Carl Shuker
A Syrian refugee visits London’s oldest houses of fashion. ‘The contemplation of the perfection of a craft, worn by a man who knew its worth, and his own.’
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘Writing about other people doesn’t have to be an exercise of power or a theft of identity.’
Between Great Fires
William Atkins
‘This is the perennial anxiety – that at any moment, day or night, you might be snatched and shackled and tried and sent back.’
The Remains of the Day
Emily Berry
‘I am lying in the foetal position on a beach in the east of England.’
Vinyl Road Trip
David Flusfeder
After an unexpected email, David Flusfeder heads to Detroit to discover his father’s history and the world of vinyl manufacturing.
Lindsey Hilsum | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Lindsey Hilsum
‘We need a new genre of travel writing, gleaned from the stories refugees and migrants.’
Samanth Subramanian | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Samanth Subramanian
‘The first time I ever visited a place I’d read about in a travel book was when my family took a holiday in Hong Kong in 1993.’
Another Great Leap
Justin Jin & A Yi
‘A man will only return to his birthplace in the countryside when he is dead. This is our reality.’
Well Done, No. 3777!
Xiaolu Guo
‘I grew up in the semi-tropical south, dotted by wet paddy fields, but I always wanted to go to the north.’
On the Road
Janine di Giovanni
‘But I still get homesick, that vast and deep pit in the stomach, every time I go away.’
Ian Jack | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Ian Jack
‘Travel writing of most kinds, not just the humorous, has the history of colonialism perched on its shoulder.’
Alexis Wright | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Alexis Wright
‘In my imagination I have been to many villages and cities in the world.’
Colin Thubron | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Colin Thubron
‘The death of travel – and of the travel book – has been predicted for almost a century.’
Robert Macfarlane | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Robert Macfarlane
‘The best writers rose to the challenge by seeking not originality of destination, but originality of form.’
Re-Entry
Andrew McConnell & Adam Marek
‘I wanted to see a human’s expression after returning from space.’
Chekhov’s Ladies
Edna O’Brien
‘Malachi is brushing her hair, long, dark brown and with russet glints. She likes it, as he can tell from her smile in the mirror.’
A short story by Edna O’Brien.
Old School
Xan Rice
‘Apartheid had marked him, as it has marked all of us, in different ways. It made me hyper-aware of colour.’
Pico Iyer | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Pico Iyer
‘The writer on place has to go further inward, into the realm of silence and nuance and personal enquiry.’
Mohsin Hamid | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Mohsin Hamid
‘I have come to believe that we are all migrants, that the experience of migration unites all human beings.’
Rana Dasgupta | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Rana Dasgupta
‘This is a literature of checkpoints and fences, and the improvised gaps through which desperate people pass.’
Higher Ground
Carl De Keyzer
‘These photographs capture that fatal boredom in the face of this slow-motion catastrophe.’
Hoa Nguyen | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Hoa Nguyen
‘I didn’t have the language for why I could not be a tourist in the same way as my white counterparts.’
