The Best American Travel Writing 2013 (33 page)

Sam Anderson
is the critic at large for the
New York Times Magazine
. His work has appeared in the
Paris Review, New York
magazine,
Slate
, the
American Scholar, Creative Nonfiction
, and
The Best Technology Writing 2010
. In 2007, he won the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. He is currently working on a book about basketball, civics, and Oklahoma City.

Marie Arana
was born in Peru and moved to the United States at the age of nine. She is the author of a memoir about her bicultural childhood,
American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood
, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award and the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir, and which won the Books for a Better Life Award. She is the editor of a collection of
Washington Post
essays about the writer’s craft,
The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work
(2002), which is used as a textbook for writing courses in universities across the country. Her novel
Cellophane
, about the Peruvian Amazon, was published in 2006 and selected as a finalist for the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. Her most recent novel, published in January 2009, is
Lima Nights
. She has written the introductions for many books on Latin America, Hispanicity, and biculturalism. She was the scriptwriter for the South American portion of
Girl Rising
, a full-length feature film on education in pockets of poverty, which was released in March 2013. Her latest book is
Bolívar: American Liberator
, a biography of the South American liberator Simón Bolívar, published in April 2013. Arana has served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is the former editor of the
Washington Post
’s Book World section, and her commentary has been published in the
New York Times, USA Today
, the
International Herald Tribune, The Week, Civilization, Smithsonian, National Geographic
, the
Virginia Quarterly Review, El Comercio, El País
, and numerous other publications throughout the Americas.

Bernd Brunner
is the author of
The Art of Lying Down: A Guide to Horizontal Living, Bears: A Brief History, Moon: A Brief History, Inventing the Christmas Tree
, and
The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium
. His books have been translated into several languages, and his writing has appeared in
Zeit Geschichte, Die Welt, Cabinet
, and
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
, among many others. A native of Berlin, Germany, he lives in Istanbul, Turkey, where he delves deeply into a very different language.

Kevin Chroust
lives in Chicago and is a 2005 graduate of Colorado State University. His sportswriting has appeared in publications from Chicago to San Francisco to Japan. He contributes to Yahoo! Sports and the online magazine the
Nervous Breakdown
, which published an excerpt of his recently completed memoir,
Fix
. Find him on Twitter @kevinchroust.

Rich Cohen
is the author of nine books, including
Tough Jews, Sweet and Low
, and
The Fish That Ate the Whale
. His latest,
Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football
, was published in October 2013. He lives in Connecticut.

Judy Copeland
’s travel essays have appeared in
Alaska Quarterly Review
, the
Florida Review, Legal Studies Forum, Literal Latte
, the
Malahat Review, Water~Stone Review
, and Travelers’ Tales anthologies. Since 2005, she has taught creative nonfiction at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Christopher de Bellaigue
is a writer and broadcaster on the Middle East and South Asia. His most recent book is
Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup
.

Jesse Dukes
is an independent writer and documentary filmmaker. For many years, he worked as a wilderness trip leader in Maine and California. He studied radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, worked for
With Good Reason
at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and is a principal at Big Shed Media.
In 2011, his
VQR
essay “Consider the Lobstermen” was selected as one of Byliner’s Spectacular Nonfiction Stories. He recently produced the radio documentary
The Great Moonshine Conspiracy
, which aired on American Public Media’s
The Story
and public radio stations. He is a contributing editor at the
Virginia Quarterly Review
and the founder of and principal at Pioneer Media Grantwriting.

David Farley
is the author of the award-winning travel memoir/narrative history
An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town
, which is currently being made into a documentary, and coeditor of the anthology of essays
Travelers’ Tales Prague and the Czech Republic: True Stories
. He’s a contributing writer at
Afar
magazine and frequently writes for the
New York Times
, the
San Francisco Chronicle, National Geographic Traveler
,
World Hum
, and
Gadling
, among other publications. He teaches writing at New York University. His online home is
www.dfarley.com
.

Ian Frazier
is the author of
Great Plains, The Fish’s Eye, On the Rez, Family
, and
Travels in Siberia
, as well as
Coyote v. Acme, Dating Your Mom
, and
Lamentations of the Father
. A frequent contributor to
The New Yorker
, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Dimiter Kenarov
is a freelance journalist and contributing editor at the
Virginia Quarterly Review
. His work has appeared in
Esquire, Outside, The Nation
, the
International Herald Tribune
, and
Foreign Policy
, among others. He currently lives in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Colleen Kinder
has written essays and articles for the
New Republic, Salon, National Geographic Traveler
, the
New York Times, Gadling
,
TheAtlantic.com
, the
Wall Street Journal, Ninth Letter, A Public Space
, the
New York Times Magazine
, and
Creative Nonfiction
. She is the author of
Delaying the Real World
and currently teaches travel writing at Yale.

Peter Jon Lindberg
is a New York–based travel journalist and essayist and the editor at large for
Travel + Leisure
. He is a two-time James Beard Award finalist for his food writing, was named a Travel Journalist of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) in 2005, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2010 for his columns and commentary in
Travel + Leisure
. He can be reached via his website,
www.peterjonlindberg.com
.

David Sedaris
is the author of the books
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked
, and
Barrel Fever
. He is a regular contributor to
The New Yorker
and BBC Radio 4. He lives in England.

Sex, pop culture, nascent trends, and eccentric characters are all grist for
Grant Stoddard
’s mill. With an eye for the surprising and ridiculous, the British-born Stoddard often reports from a participatory perspective, imbuing his stories with an engaging, visceral, dynamic feel and a humanistic focus. Stoddard has had two books published,
Working Stiff: The Misadventures of an Accidental Sexpert
and
Great in Bed
, which he coauthored with Dr. Debby Herbenick of the Kinsey Institute.

John Jeremiah Sullivan
is a contributing editor for the
New York Times Magazine
and the author of
Pulphead: Essays
(2011).

Sarah A. Topol
moved to Egypt in 2008. Her writing has been published in the
Atlantic, Businessweek, Esquire, GQ, Harper’s Magazine, Newsweek
, the
New York Times
, and
Slate
, among others. She has reported from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen as well as Gaza and the West Bank. She won the 2012 Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism for her coverage of the civil war in Libya. She lived in Cairo for four and a half years and recently relocated to Istanbul.

Daniel Tyx
teaches English at South Texas College in McAllen, where he lives with his wife, Laura, and their two young children. He is at work on a collection of essays about the U.S.-Mexico border, several of which have appeared in
Gulf Coast
, the
Gettysburg Review, CutBank
, and
Blue Mesa Review
.

Lynn Yaeger
is contributing editor to
Travel + Leisure
and
Vogue
and also contributes to many other publications. She lives in New York City.

S
ELECTED BY
J
ASON
W
ILSON

L
ISA
A
BEND

Spain Lets Loose.
Afar
, May/June.

R
OSECRANS
B
ALDWIN

Our French Connection.
The Morning News
, May 29.

A
IMEE
B
ENDER

Another Angle on L.A.
Afar
, February.

K
EN
B
ENSINGER

The Frequent Fliers Who Flew Too Much.
Los Angeles Times
, May 5.

J
ANE
B
ERNSTEIN

Desperately Seeking Subtext.
Creative Nonfiction
, Spring.

R
ITA
W
ELTY
B
OURKE

The Larry Brown Discovery Tour.
Chattahoochee Review
, vol. 31, no. 3.

J
OHN
B
RANCH

Snow Fall.
New York Times
, December 23.

N
ATHANIEL
B
RODIE

Sparks.
Creative Nonfiction
, Spring.

F
RANK
B
URES

The Crossing.
Nowhere
, September.

The Reunion.
The Washington Post Magazine
, March 11.

J
ESSICA
C
OLLEY

Catching the Gist.
World Hum
, August 7.

L
AUREN
C
OLLINS

The British Invasion.
The New Yorker
, April 16.

B
ILL
D
ONAHUE

Into the Woods.
Afar
, December.

W
ILLIAM
F
INNEGAN

Slow and Steady.
The New Yorker
, January 23.

D
EVIN
F
RIEDMAN

The Best Night $500,000 Can Buy.
GQ
, September.

R
ACHEL
F
RIEDMAN

Discovery.
Creative Nonfiction
, Summer.

R
IVKA
G
ALCHEN

Wild West Germany.
The New Yorker
, April 9.

K
EITH
G
ESSEN

Polar Express.
The New Yorker
, December 24 and 31.

L
ENORE
G
REINER

Translating Respect.
World Hum
, June 27.

P
ETER
G
WIN

Rhino Wars.
National Geographic
, March.

A. E. H
OTCHNER

A Legend as Big as the Ritz.
Vanity Fair
, July.

R
AFI
K
OHAN

From Beads to the Big House.
GQ
, February.

J
ANE
K
RAMER

A Reporter at Odds.
The New Yorker
, July 23.

P
ETER
L
A
S
ALLE

With Nathanael West in Hollywood.
Memoir
, issue 11 (December).

E
VGENY
L
EBEDEV

Beyond Black Hawk Down.
Vanity Fair
, May.

B
RUNO
M
ADDOX

I Was a Las Vegas Concierge.
Travel + Leisure
, June.

J
OYCE
M
AYNARD

On the Road Again.
T Magazine
, Winter.

L
INDA
W
ATANABE
M
C
F
ERRIN