SUSAN ORLEAN, STAFF WRITER AT THE NEW YORKER, AND ACTOR
AND TRAVEL WRITER ANDREW MCCARTHY
JOIN THE FACULTY OF THE 2012 BOOK PASSAGE
TRAVEL WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS CONFERENCE

The 21st Annual Conference in the San Francisco Bay Area

For Travel Writers and Photographers

This year's participants will spend four event-filled days in beautiful Northern California writing, workshopping, networking, and perfecting their craft with an internationally acclaimed faculty featuring prize-winning journalists, authors and photographers including Susan Orlean (staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Orchid Thief, Rin Tin Tin); Andrew McCarthy (Actor, director, and Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel writer); Spud Hilton (Travel Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle); Pauline Frommer (internationally syndicated travel expert and host of The Travel Show with her father Arthur Frommer). View the complete faculty list >>

Book Passage Bookstore proudly announces the 21st annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference. Travel writers, photographers, essayists, bloggers and food and cookbook writers from around the globe will convene at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, just a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, August 9-12, 2012.

Publishers, magazine editors, photographers, travel essayists, food writers, restauranteurs and guidebook writers will share invaluable insider advice on how to hone your craft, find an agent and get your work published.

There will be many opportunities for faculty and participants to talk, laugh, and exchange ideas in workshops, lunches, and at evening events. Participants and faculty will dine together outdoors in the glorious summer weather the first evening, while subsequent evenings will allow for optional excursions to an array of outstanding dining options for which the Bay Area is so well known.

Alumna, and now widely-published travel writer and photographer, April Orcutt says, "Don George, John Flinn, Larry Habegger, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Lynn Ferrin, Robert Holmes and other instructors at the conference taught me skills I used in my stories and photographs which have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Denver Post, Montreal Gazette, other newspapers and three anthologies (including the cover photos of one book).”

The 2012 conference faculty will include agents: Kimberley Cameron (Kimberley Cameron and Associates), Amy Rennert (The Amy Rennert Agency), Andy Ross (Andy Ross Agency); photographers: Robert Holmes (three-time winner of Travel Photographer of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers), Andrea Johnson (award-winning photographer and video producer), Jeff Pflueger (New York Times, National Geographic), Stuart Schwartz (photographer specializing in people photography for advertising and corporate clients); food and culinary pros: Dianne Jacob (judge for the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals), Shelley Lindgren (Wine Director/Owner for SPQR in San Francisco),  Jessie Poshepny (Trione Vineyards & Winery),  (Peter Schaf and John Troia (international absinthe experts); authors, journalists and editors: Jim Benning, Cara Black, Julia Cosgrove, Phil Cousineau, Andrew Evans, David Farley, Chris Gray Faust, Pauline Frommer,  Grace Fujimoto, Don George, Peter Greenberg, Larry Habegger, Georgia Hesse, Spud Hilton, Sarah Juckniess, Irvin Lin, Pam Mandel, Oksana Marafioti, Andrew McCarthy, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Loren Mooney, Susan Orlean, Robert Reid, Michael Shapiro, Julia Flynn Siler

The cost of the four-day Conference is $635. Optional 30-minute private consultations are available for $95. For complete details, a full schedule, faculty list, accommodations, or to register, please visit the Conference homepage on the Web at http://www.bookpassage.com/travel-writers-photographers-conference. You may also contact Conference Coordinator, Kathryn Petrocelli, by phone at (415) 927-0960 ext. 239, or email bpconferences@bookpassage.com.

Elliott Hester, author of Plane Insanity and Adventures of a Continental Drifter, says, "Before signing up for the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, I had never published a travel article. After soaking up information from the conference faculty, I went home and applied what I'd learned. Thanks to Book Passage, I've written more than 100 articles and two travel memoirs, one of which became a bestseller."

Join the conference on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/bookpassage.travel.conference

Join the conference on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/bp_travel

Book Passage has served the Bay Area for more than 30 years, providing the community with an array of author events, writing and language classes, and highly-respected, annual conferences. A New York Times-reporting bookstore, Book Passage offers a wide variety of books ranging from children’s literature to travel guides, from top-selling fiction to mystery novels, and the business continues to work diligently with community and nonprofit organizations. Book Passage has two stores, one in Corte Madera and a second in the San Francisco Ferry Building.