In my book bullpen: five very different travel memoirs

October 12th, 2009 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

I haven’t read them all yet, only bits and pieces, but reading-time is scarce this fall season, and I’m doing the best I can. I’m also interested in these titles because I am writing my own travel memoir, even as the publishing world continues to implode and naysayers say nay, doom, and gloom, especially about the memoir. It’s the hardest-hit genre unless you’re a huge celebrity, they say. Yet here I am, immersed in memoir, specifically, the loose travel-essay/lit shelf, that ragtag stepchild of the orderly aisles of guidebooks found in any bookstore.

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“The Millionth Bead: How old magazines and glue built a village in Africa” by Joshua Berman

June 21st, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

WorldView is “a 22-year-old quarterly magazine of news and commentary about the Peace Corps world.” Check out my article in the current issue about a small but far-reaching non-profit organization based in Kampala, Uganda and Boulder, Colorado:

“The Millionth Bead” How old magazines and glue built a village in Africa, by Joshua Berman:

Where Am I Wearing: Kelsey the Touron Travels to the Origin of his Clothes

May 3rd, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Where am I Wearing?: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes is an impressive debut book—a clever concoction of memoir, travelogue, and narrative nonfiction—by Kelsey Timmerman, popular travel blogger and the original Traveling Touron.

In Wearing, Kelsey takes us on a decidedly different kind of journey than the other titles on the “travel lit” shelf, most of which are macho/romantic memoir clutter. Kelsey travels to the garment industry countries where his clothes were made, a seemingly simple proposition which arose not from any academic/journalist rigueur, but rather the sheer curiosity that came from reading the tags on his t-shirt, boxers, jeans, and flip-flops one day. That meant going to Honduras, Cambodia, China, and Bangladesh. So he went. (more…)

Tranquilo Bloggage: A run-down of my websites

March 22nd, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

In addition to my books and articles, here’s where I’m writing these days:

The Tranquilo Traveler: Right here, my main, central stump. This blog, which is hosted by the kind folks at Bootsnall.com, is a celebration of voluntourism, slow travel, and other interesting ways to see the world. Updated often, The Tranquilo Traveler is a resource for world trippers and a window to the author’s ongoing travels (especially to Nicaragua and Belize).

Tranquilo Belize: My official author blog, hosted by my publisher, Avalon Travel. I sometimes double-post Belize articles between here and the TT, but not always. Belize-a-philes can bookmark this page and also these essential Belize links.

GoToNicaragua.com: This site was created with Randy Wood, my coauthor of Moon Nicaragua and Living Abroad in Nicaragua. We offer travel articles and updates on the front-page blog, a Nica news feed at the bottom of the page, and an increasingly popular travelers’ forum, where our readers can ask questions about traveling in Nicaragua.

Peace Corps Worldwide Travel Column: Randy and I are “The Travel Guys” on this new site “where returned Volunteers share their expertise and experiences.” Read my debut essay, “Seeing the World and Bringing it Back Home.”

My Facebook page: Let’s face it, it’s sometimes way easier to throw up links and morsels on FB than commit to a real blog entry.

Uncornered Market: Exceptional travel tweetbloggers arrive in Central America

March 20th, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Traveling used to mean disappearing into the wilderness. Now it can mean broadcasting that wilderness around the world in instant flashes and snippets. Interesting times, indeed. Uncornered Market is at once a case study of how to report at large from the world and an extraordinary über-blog by (fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll. Their passions include technology and street food, they travel with a really cool fish-eye lens (among many other toys, I’m sure), and they have covered a lot of ground. More from their About:

“In December 2006, we left our secure jobs and comfortable lifestyle in Prague, Czech Republic for a creative sabbatical: traveling the world, taking photographs and sharing stories about people from all walks of life…. blog, photo gallery, videos, and audiocasts … where we share our experiences. We aim to humanize the places we visit, drawing our readers in through photographs and stories, so they connect with people and places they might otherwise never hear about or actively disregard.”

I’ve never tweeted before, but if I’m ever going to try, I would start with Dan and Audrey’s Twitter travel feed, currently following their trials and travails in Spanish school in Xela, Guatemala (”Just told Guatemalan host mother that we are an ‘equipo de cocinar’ - Dan for savory & me for dulce. The fun of learning a new language”).

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Travel writing resource mother lode: 100 fat links

March 13th, 2009 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Here’s a nice round-up of travel writing links—and I’m not just saying that because my homepage made the list (at #56 thankyouverymuch). “If you love to travel as much as you love to write,” reads the introduction (and I would be sure to add the converse of that statement as well), then you’ll enjoy “advice from professionals, tips, opportunities to get to know other travel writers, organizations for travel writers, places to find writing jobs, and resources for traveling”:

The Art of Travel Writing: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources to Get Paid and Published

How to Cook a Tapir: Joan Fry’s Belize memoir out next month

March 8th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

I love a good travel memoir, better yet, a culinary travel memoir. So I can’t wait to read How to Cook a Tapir: A Memoir of Belize, by Joan Fry, being released in April. From the book’s publisher: “This is the funny, heartfelt, and provocative story of how Fry painstakingly baked and boiled her way up the food chain … Fry’s efforts to win over her neighbors and hair-pulling students offers a rare and insightful picture of the Kekchi Maya of Belize, even as this unique culture was disappearing before her eyes.”Pre-order Tapir on Amazon

An interview with the author

Riding Loveland: new article in Colorado state tourist guide

January 31st, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

My first work for the great state of Colorado: a short essay on snowboarding the Contintental Divide. I have not had a single free day to go snowboarding, skiing, or snowshoeing this season, so I have to settle for writing about past triumphs. When asked about my “ideal” day, I chose a whiteout powder day I once had at Loveland Ski Area. Here is the piece, entitled “Precipitation: 100 Percent.” Enjoy.

Tranquilo Belize—my new blog on Moon.com

January 21st, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Join me and my colleagues—Moon authors Chris Baker (Cuba and Costa Rica), Al Argueta (Guatemala), and Wayne Bernhardson (South America)—over at the newly pimped-out www.moon.com. The completely redesigned website, which launched Jan. 9, includes the text of many of Moon’s most popular guidebooks, formatted for easy browsing and searching. Other features include author interviews, reader polls, a bookstore, and downloadable maps.

“We’re thrilled with the new site and I’m confident it will quickly develop a following,” said Bill Newlin, publisher of Avalon Travel. “With tens of thousands of pages of practical travel information, there will be plenty of opportunities for travelers to become better acquainted with Moon.”

I’ll be posting a few times a week on Tranquilo Belize; some of these posts will be repeated here, but most will not, so bookmark it and see you out there.

Nicaragua Show this Tuesday at Changes in Latitudes Travel Store in Boulder

January 17th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Come all ye Boulderites and I’ll show you some pictures from Nicaragua, answer your travel questions, and sign some books.

Tuesday, January 20th - NICARAGUA: LAND OF LAKES & VOLCANOES - Take a tour of Central America’s largest, least-visited nation.
The show will begin at 7 p.m. I recommend getting there by 6:30 if you want a seat. Much thanks to the folks at the Tattered Cover Bookstore last Friday for hosting my first Nica show of the year. For those of you unable to attend, I’ll post the slide show soon.
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