The acclaimed travel writer Dervla Murphy passed away at the end of May. After the news broke, the web was awash with an outpouring of tributes remembering and honoring her life and career (links in the roundup below). If you haven’t done so already, you must read her books and listen to her interviews. R.I.P.
I’ll be off to Bolivia and Peru for the entire month of August. During this time, I will be mostly off the grid. But each day I’ll send a brief, photo-heavy dispatch. Subscribe to my “pop-up” newsletter 30 Days in the Andes to join me on my adventure from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia to Lima, Peru. I’ll surely be revisiting Dervla Murphy’s Eight Feet in the Andes: Travels with a Mule in Unknown Peru (Eland) before I set off.
Now, onto what you came for:
Last month we published
※ A podcast with Marcia DeSanctis about A Hard Place to Leave on Travel Writing World
※ A podcast with Nicholas Jubber about The Fairy Tellers on Travel Writing World
※ A podcast with Shafik Meghji about Crossed Off The Map: Travels in Bolivia on Travel Writing World
※ An author profile of Meaghan Hackinen on Travel Writing World
※ A “postcard” from Bordeaux, France on my website
The roundup
🚴 Dervla Murphy gave her final recorded interview (we believe) with Ryan Murdock, which you can listen to here. Her publisher Eland says goodbye to Dervla, as does The Oldie, Michael Kerr for Deskbound Traveller, The New York Times, The Irish Times, and The Times. Just last month, the FT profiled Dervla Murphy: “I’m lucky to still be enjoying being alive,” she said. And in January The Guardian profiled Dervla.
🐪 Ryan Murdock interviewed author Guy Kennaway and biographer Caroline Moorehead about Martha Gellhorn for his Personal Landscapes podcast.
🗺 Stanford’s book of the month is Where the Wildflowers Grow: My Botanical Journey Through Britain and Ireland by Leif Bersweden. The bookstore also has a few in-person author talks scheduled for this month.
↪️ Rolf Potts speaks with food and travel writer Sophia Bentaher on his podcast Deviate.
👂 Jo Frances Penn speaks with Lachlan Page about the nuances of Colombia on her Books and Travel Podcast.
📚 Michelle Jana Chan speaks with Rebecca Mead and Pretty Taneja on her podcast The Wandering Book Collector.
🗣 Travel Writer Tim Bascom is profiled on Rolf Potts’ blog.
🗺 Stanfords posted a few extracts of new travel books on their blog.
✈️ Zero Altitude: How going flight-free can help save the planet – and change how you see the world.
🛫 It’s a flying shame: A travel editor gives up planes… for a year.
📚 Michel Kerr reports that Lea Ypi wins Ondaatje Prize for Albania memoir on Deskbound Traveller.
🇳🇿 Pat Backley talks about Seventy Years Worth of Travel and her new book.
📸 The NYT published a few photo essays last month: A Woman Alone in Oman, An Intimate Look at Mexico’s Indigenous Seri People, and Circling Sicily on Its Regional Trains.
📷 David Turnley: Photographing the Soul of Humanity in Ukraine.
📸 On Steve McCurry’s blog: Stories of Mirrors and Windows and All Love Begins There.
🇲🇳 Inner Mongolia captured in photos by native who finally realized its beauty.
🇲🇴 The Wanderlust Travel Photo of the Year 2019 prize winners have returned from their commission to Hong Kong and Macao. Here’s what they found…
🇧🇴 Author Shaffik Meghji is Beguiled by Bolivia.
❤️ J.R. Patterson writes about visiting Stanfords in London.
🛬 Matt “Nomadic Matt” Kepnes announced his travel blogging conference TravelCon is no more. TBEX is poised to reign uncontested once again.
🥾 The Greatest Traveler You’ve Never Heard Of.
🇨🇷 Levison Wood’s time in Costa Rica.
🇲🇽 A Psychedelic Trip to Timothy Leary’s Catalina Resort in Mexico.
✍️ Marcia DeSanctis: On a Decade of Traveling Through Essays Stories.
🇮🇪 Irish Independent journalists scoop top prizes at travel writing awards.
🇳🇿 Lonely Planet competition winners revealed.
👀 To Nail Your Memoir’s Beginning, Stop Looking in the Wrong Direction.
🚪 An Open Door: New Travel Writing for a Precarious Century Edited by Steven Lovatt.
🌊 Louis Vuitton’s Newest Travel Book Offers An Artistic Perspective Of The Mediterranean Sea.
🥇 Nicola Chester has won the Richard Jefferies Award for the best nature writing published in 2021 with her book On Gallows Down.
🍂 Learn nature writing with summer with Anita Sethi.
🇸🇳 In Senegal, a City on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis.
🇮🇲 UNESCO launches nature writing competition.
🍃 Canongate stays Grounded with Canton’s nature memoir.
🏖 Eight new travel books to read on vacation this summer.
📝 Nine best travel books to inspire your next adventure.
🏆 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction announces judges for 2022.
🏆 Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell Win the 2022 International Booker Prize.
🇵🇸 Shireen Abu Akleh: Al Jazeera reporter and journalist killed by Israeli forces.
💰 Off Assignment is hiring an associate editor.
🅾️ Outside Ends Monthly Print Runs of Backpacker, Climbing, and More Amid Layoffs.
💡 Kevin Kelly notes 103 bits of advice he wishes he had known earlier.
👩💻 Rooms of their own. Five women on where they write.
📚 The Atlantic to Launch Book Imprint with Zando.
✏️ Should You Write a Book? 7 Reasons Why Every Freelancer Should Consider It.
🏆 The film adaptation of Pablo Cognetti’s novel The Eight Mountains won a prize at Cannes Film Festival.
Books received (bought and/or gifted)
🇵🇪 Carolyn Dean, A Culture of Stone
🪬 The Routledge Handbook for Spiritual and Religious Tourism
🏔 Levison Wood, Walking the Himalayas
🌎 JRNY Magazine, Issue #2
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