Book(ed) Passage

Video: Paola Gianturco Talks About the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference

2012-05-08T17:19:00.001-07:00

Susan Orlean added to the Faculty of the 2012 Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference

2012-01-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

Book Passage is delighted to announce the addition of author Susan Orlean to the faculty of the 2012 Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, August 9-12 in Corte Madera, California.

Susan Orlean
Orlean is a journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker. Her books include The Orchid Thief, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People, My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. She has contributed articles to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside. Orlean lives in Columbia County, New York (with occasional stints in Los Angeles and in New York City) with her husband, her son, dog, and two chickens.

Read more >>

This four-day Conference offers an array of writing and photography workshops in the morning, a full afternoon of panels and discussions, and evenings of faculty presentations. There are optional, working field trips to explore the resources of the Bay Area.

The faculty includes publishers, magazine editors, photographers, travel essayists, food writers, restauranteurs, guidebook writers, travel bloggers, and more. There are hours of informal interaction between faculty and students at lunch and in other discussions that often last late into the evening.

There are optional writing and photography workshops on Thursday afternoon just prior to the Conference. They are available to participants for an additional fee.

Register >>

Optional private evaluations of student work are also available.

Stay close to our Facebook page, our Twitter feed, and BookPassage.com for the upcoming announcement of the complete Conference faculty.

The Schizophrenic Search For My Nutbar

2011-09-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Reflections from a Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference Newbie

by Diane Susan Petty

I used to be wealthy and successful—number one in my industry.

Now I sit on a bench contemplating a “No Barking” sign, the “P” graffitied over with a “B”. I observe the cars are indeed parked in front and the dogs are quiet. I notice a sign saying an 18-pound male cat named PhiPhi has run away and wonder if it was because the other kitties were teasing him about his name.

Diane (far right) with Don George

I recently became an unemployed, broke mortgage banker. After announcing my desire to make a major life change and become an unemployed, broke travel writer, a mutual friend introduced me to travel writing guru, Don George.

Don’s advice? “Come to the Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference. Meet Spud. It’ll be life changing.”

Down to our last $1000, my husband suggested we might want to use that money for groceries; why not wait and go next year? Groceries be damned; I could drop a few pounds anyway. I’m going to the conference.

One minute I’m excited and hopeful for the future; the former confident me has returned. The next I’m petrified about attending, convinced I’m grasping at straws out of pure desperation. What do I know about travel writing?

When you tell your family you’ve spent your last dime on a travel writer’s conference, their faces go blank and they ask why.

When you read The Paris Wife about Hemingway’s brilliant mind and tortured soul, you momentarily wish you had a drinking problem; it might help you become a better writer.

When a stranger in the airport asks where you are off to and you tell her a San Francisco writer’s conference, her face lights up. “Oh, you’re a writer!” she beams with yearning eyes. “You’re so lucky.” I don’t bother to correct her and spend the next hour strutting around the Toronto airport, imagining I am a writer waiting for my flight.

When I’m unexpectedly bumped to first class, I take it as a sign … even the United Airlines gods know I am destined to be a travel writer, jet-setting around the world with my laptop in a beat up leather bag. I wonder if duty-free sells beat up leather bags?

It’s the morning of Don’s pre-conference field trip to Point Reyes Station. Feeling exhilarated and freaked out, I focus my attention on the superficial, worrying about wearing the right clothes, trying to forget I have the wrong degree. Too dressed up and I’ll look uppity. Too casual and I’ll look like a slob who doesn’t care. I wish I knew what that Linda Watanabe McFerrin was wearing.

Guess what? Wear tattered jeans or a ball gown; it doesn’t matter.

At Cowgirl Creamery, we sit with Don and plot our day. Walk. Observe. Write. Eat. Repeat. Share what you wrote at the end of the day.

My confidence is back; I can walk and talk and gawk. And I love to eat.

I feel the need to be more brilliant, interesting, and observant than anyone else in our group. I want to stand out and be noticed. I can’t possibly share my ideas or observations lest someone steals them; they are that brilliant.

Don tells us to put ourselves in the shoes of a travel writer. I sit on a bench and try hard to observe new, unique things. The only thing I observe is that I want another one of those new, unique cookies from Bovine Bakery across the street and that the dogs in Point Reyes Station seem to be able to read.

It’s the end of our field trip, time to share what we wrote.

Someone commented on the painful juxtaposition of signs about the future of Point Reyes Station posted on an abandoned red brick building.

Damn. I didn’t even see the building, let alone the juxtaposition.

Another mentions a dialogue about a 45 lb marlin, overheard between a pedestrian and someone in a car stopped in the middle of the road.

Damn. The only dialogue I heard was someone yelling, “We don’t want you travel writers here; we don’t want to become another Carmel.”

Don asks if anyone has written a piece.

Diane with "Gold Shoes"

She is a stunning journalist from Chile with an exotic Spanish accent and totally cool gold shoes. I hate her already. On two scrunched up yellow Post-It notes, she has managed to scribble a brilliant story, complete and ready for publication. She asks for criticism; there is none.

Blogger, Kylethevagabond volunteers to read his piece. When he pulls out his 32” flatscreen laptop, everyone ooohs and aaahs as if he has just invented the wheel.

Damn. Why didn’t I bring my laptop?

A silence hangs over the group after he reads his work. He apologizes; this was just a rough draft. He works for Gadling. He has published 45 articles. Someone says his lede is brilliant and natural. I think his nut bar is perfect until a colleague gently explains it is called a nutgraf.

I want to go eat a nut bar at Toby’s Feed Barn across the street.

The drive back to Book Passage is much less animated. Some of us are feeling we should not be here. Why didn’t I go to journalism school? Stupid, useless, law degree.

Back at the store, feeling completely inadequate, I look at all the courses I can take throughout the year to hone my craft. That’s what I need to do, despite the fact that I don’t yet have a craft and I have nothing to hone. I don’t even know what hone means. Take more courses, then write something. That’s my new plan.

Guess what? It is far easier to pay $350 for another course than it is to write something and risk rejection. Janis Cooke Newman tells us, “Your immediate goal should be ten rejection letters.” Genius.

At the intro dinner, I maneuver to sit with my idol from the San Francisco Chronicle, Spud Hilton. He actually buys articles. He tells our table of newbies exactly what he wants … lede-nutgraf-scene-scene-scene-walkaway. That‘s it. This is what I came for. I have a roadmap. I’ve cracked the code. I already feel the conference was worth it, and it hasn’t even started. I don’t care if I have to live on nut bars for the rest of my life; I’m going to be a travel writer.

*****

Diane Susan Petty

Diane Susan Petty is a former mortgage banker and accepts full responsibility for the current state of the US economy. She recently attended her first Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference, and she is hooked. When not out seeking new adventures, she lives in the redwoods of Larkspur, California, with her husband, two children and their golden retriever, Buster.

Photos and story by Diane Susan Petty

Travel Then and Now: Linda Watanabe McFerrin Interviews Georgia Hesse

2011-08-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

Linda Watanabe McFerrin

by Linda Watanabe McFerrin

The absolutely amazing Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference begins next week, August 11-14, in Corte Madera.

Writers from around the world will be converging for four days of workshops, panels, consultations, and outstanding presentations. I am thoroughly thrilled to be kicking off the conference with a presentation about The Life of a Travel Writer with one of my mentors from way back: the Grande Dame of travel writing, Georgia Hesse.

I had lunch with Georgia at San Francisco’s Café de la Presse. We talked about travel, then and now, over a salade frisée, a tarte provençale, and a couple of glasses of vin rouge. This prompted a host of questions from me, which Georgia has politely deigned to answer.

First, a few words about Georgia and her illustrious career:

Georgia Hesse

Georgia I. Hesse claims to have been born on the 28 Ranch on Crazy Woman Creek at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. She was graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and studied political science and white wines as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Strasbourg in France. She is the founding travel editor of the San Francisco Examiner (the original Hearst-owned one, she hastens to say) and then of the joined (on Sundays) Examiner-Chronicle.

Georgia has taught travel writing for the 20 years of the Book Passage conference and has lectured at several writers’ gatherings and at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. For several years she had a weekly travel-music program at the once and much-missed S.F. radio station KABL. Her articles have appeared in 20 magazines and 38 newspapers and she is the author/co-author of 14 books, several of them guides to France and California.

Georgia holds the Ordre National du Mérite from the French government and the Chevalier l’Ordre de la République from Tunisia. She has visited all 50 U.S. states and at most recent tally has crossed the Atlantic 174 times and the Pacific 98 times, by airplane and ship. She believes in Paul Theroux’s dictum, “Every step out the door can be a story. Consider San Francisco’s #30 bus.”

Continue reading the interview on the Left Coast Writers Blog

2011 Faculty Crossword Puzzle - Travel Writers & Photographers Conference

2011-07-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

The 40 faculty for the 20th annual Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference (August 11-14, 2011) are a distinguished bunch. From bloggers to free-lancers, from staff writers to bestselling authors, these 40 represent just about every approach to feature writing and photography. Heck, we even have a movie star turned travel writer!

The complete conference faculty - including mini-bios and images - can be found at http://bookpassage.com/travel-food-photography-conference-faculty

Think you know all 40? Think you can find all 40? As this is in part a travel conference, we came up with a word search puzzle featuring the last names of all 40 faculty. First one to complete the puzzle wins a free trip around the world - just kidding.

Below are the names of the 40 faculty. Please note: only last names are included in the word search puzzle above.

Jim Benning
Georgeanne Brennan
Tim Cahill
Kimberley Cameron
Kaye Cloutman
Julia Cosgrove
Phil Cousineau
Robin Donovan
Juliana Gallin
David Farley
Don George
Liza Gershman
Larry Habegger
Catharine Hamm
Georgia Hesse
Spud Hilton
Robert Holmes
Roger Housden
Dianne Jacob
Elizabeth Kracht
Heidi Krahling
Shelley Lindgren
Michael David Lukas
Pam Mandel
Niko Mayer
Andrew McCarthy
Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Janis Cooke Newman
Jeff Pflueger
Lulu Del Rosario
Andy Ross
Peter Schaf
Cheryl Sterman Rule
Stuart Schwartz
Michael Shapiro
Amy Sherman
Danielle Svetcov
John Troia
Tina Vierra
Joanne Weir

Andrew McCarthy Discusses His New Role: Travel Writer

2011-07-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

by Don George

[from Gadling.com]

For many people, the name Andrew McCarthy probably conjures images of iconic movies from the 1980s and 1990s, films such as St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Weekend at Bernie's, and The Joy Luck Club. But these days the actor is playing a new role: travel writer. Since he first wrote a piece on Ireland for National Geographic Traveler in 2006, McCarthy has published some two dozen travel stories in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Afar, and Islands. He is now a Contributing Editor for National Geographic Traveler, and last year in the Society of American Travel Writers' annual Lowell Thomas awards competition, he was named Travel Journalist of the Year. McCarthy will be guest of honor at the Book Passage Travel & Food Writers & Photographers Conference next month and has just signed a contract to write his first travel memoir.

I had the pleasure of interviewing McCarthy onstage at the National Geographic Auditorium in May. The evening was full of great anecdotes and insights; here are some that especially struck me.

Continue reading at Gadling.com

Food Rules at the 2011 Travel Writers & Photographers Conference

2011-07-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

Food writers, culinary bloggers, and aspiring restaurant critics will join travel writers and photographers at the 20th Annual Book Passage Travel & Food Writing & Photography Conference in Corte Madera, California August 11-14, 2011.

Study Food Writing, Travel Writing, and Photography in one of the premier culinary and travel capitals of the world—the San Francisco Bay Area!

It's no secret that the Bay Area leads the nation in the food movement. From slow food to food trucks and internationally-acclaimed restaurants to local farmers markets, the San Francisco Bay is at the vanguard of all things food. Culinary visionaries have sought out the Bay Area, with its abundant resources from sustainable farms to the lush vineyards of the Napa Valley, for decades. Local mavericks like Alice Waters and Joyce Goldstein paved the way for a powerful food revolution, that today includes world-renowned chefs, culinary intellectuals, and famed food bloggers from Michael Mina to Michael Pollan and Jeremy Fox to Amy Sherman.

Yet, the Bay Area food movement retains a close-knit and homegrown spirit. Both friendships and tastebuds are nurtured through the love of food and place. It's a zeitgeist that inspires rich and lasting experiences both at home and abroad. Utilizing the abundant resources of the Bay Area, culinary journalists, food photographers, and bloggers, glean what they learn from the Bay Area and take their pursuits to new heights, whether they're in their own backyards or on the other side of the globe.

If you're an aspiring cookbook writer or a seasoned journalist, an urban gardener, organic farmer, beekeeper, winegrower, vegan blogger, or an Elite Yelp reviewer with a sweet tooth—or you just want to travel the globe, eat amazing food, and tell the world about it—the Book Passage Travel & Food Writing & Photography Conference is for you!

An evolving conference for an evolving marketplace—that’s the way we see this year’s Travel & Food Writing & Photography Conference.

Along with traditional classes on magazine and newspaper writing, we’ve added and refined programs on a host of trending topics including vblogging (aka video blogging), self publishing, and photography for the web.

New and notable this year are classes on “Travel Writing & Blogging in the Digital Age,” “Developing a Website (for Writers & Photographers),” and when success hits, “Zero to Sixty: The Elements of Exponential Blog Growth.” Food writing—the hottest trend in publishing (both print and digital) plays an integral part in this year’s event. The 2011 faculty will include the following culinary professionals:

Georgeanne Brennan
Georgeanne Brennan is an award-winning cookbook author & journalist, with more than 30 cookbooks translated into a dozen languages to her credit, as well as the food memoir, A Pig in Provence. She has taught classes at BP, UC Berkeley and UC Davis Extension, and at her "Writer's Retreat in Provence.
Robin Donovan & Juliana Gallin
Robin Donovan is the author of Campfire Cuisine: Gourmet Recipes for the Great Outdoors and coauthor of The New York Times bestseller Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Diet. Juliana Gallin works as a graphic designer and produces several popular speakers' series in San Francisco.
Dianne Jacob
Author of Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir, and More.
Andrea Johnson
Photojournalist for the wine and spirits, food, and travel industries. Her work is found in Wine Spectator, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. She is the photographer for Passion for Pinot.
Heidi Krahling
Owner and Chef of Insalata’s Restaurant in San Anselmo. Author of the beautiful cookbook Insalata’s Mediterranean Table.
Shelley Lindgren
Co-author of A16: Food+Wine. Wine Director of the San Francisco restaurants A16 and SPQR. She also teaches wine classes.
Cheryl Sternman Rule
Widely published freelance food writer, recipe developer, blogger, and pending cookbook author.
Amy Sherman
San Francisco-based cookbook author. She writes the award-winning blog Cooking With Amy.
Joanne Weir
Award-winning food writer and author of Wine Country Cooking and From Tapas to Meze.

These outstanding culinary pros will be joined by acclaimed travel writers and photographers, including Tim Cahill, Phil Cousineau, Don George, Robert Holmes, and actor-travel writer Andrew McCarthy.

Join us at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California August 11-14, 2011. Network with acclaimed food and travel writers and photographers from the Bay Area and from around the world. Start a new writing or photography career this summer, or take your already-established career to new places at the 20th Annual Travel & Food Writing & Photography Conference!

Visit the Conference Homepage | Register for the Conference | Facebook | Twitter

20th Annual Conference for Aspiring Travel Writers featured on Frommers

2011-03-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Book Passage's 20th Annual Conference for aspiring travel writers was featured today by Arthur Frommer on the Frommer's website. Wow! As Frommer notes, "this year's event ... promises to be an especially robust gathering."

Why? Because, in Frommer's words, the Book Passage Conference on Travel Writing and Photography has "gained renown globally for the quality and accessibility of its faculty, the range of its workshops and panels, and the extraordinary achievements of its graduates, who have gone on to publish hundreds of books and articles in magazines, newspapers and websites."

This year's Book Passage Conference on Travel Writing and Photography takes place August 11-14. In general, the conference is aimed toward aspiring travel writers, as well as perspiring travel writers who venture to warmer climes. Find out more about the conference, including the 2011 faculty and participant schedule, at http://bookpassage.com/travel-food-photography-conference-schedule.

Don George Blogs the 19th Annual Travel, Food & Photography Conference

2010-09-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

From Gadling.com:

by Don George
"Two weeks ago the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference – that annual four-day summer camp for travel creators – magically unfolded in Marin County's Corte Madera once again. The conference is always one of the highlights of the year for me, and it proved so this year as well. Looking back, I've distilled five lessons from this year's reeling, regaling, roller-coaster ride.

1. Travel writing makes you see the familiar anew: The conference actually kicked off for me with a pre-conference one-day in-the-field workshop. This year I took a hardy and convivial band of 11 writers to Point Reyes Station. This tiny town on winding Highway 1 seems the quintessential Northern California outpost to me. Though the population is only 350, the locally headquartered Cowgirl Creamery sells cheeses from as far away as France, England, and Italy (as well as its own signature, creamily delicious Mt Tam and tangy Red Hawk cheeses); on the one and only main street, Coyuchi sells organic textiles made in India, Cabaline offers Western and Australian saddlery next to Marin-made hats, and Zuma showcases jewelry crafted in Africa, Asia and down the street. In short, it's a captivating mix of the local and the global, distinguished by its quality and its commitment to sustainable principles and practices."

Continue reading at Gadling.com

Tim Cahill, Spud Hilton, Amanda Jones, Don George & Robert Holmes Talk About the Rewarding Experience of Book Passage Summer Conferences

2010-06-30T21:02:00.001-07:00

David Lytle Presents Frommer's First Travel Tweetup! Twitter Around San Francisco

2009-09-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

Discussion on Twitter and Travel:
Twitter with David Lytle Around San Francisco!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Culminating event at 6:00 pm
Book Passage in the San Francisco Ferry Building

Join us for Frommer's first Travel Tweetup!
Frommers.com editorial director David Lytle will be twittering around San Francisco in the afternoon and later at Book Passage will be speaking on how Twitter is changing the nature of travel and how travelers can use the social media site to plan trips, connect with locals, and find the best travel deals.

You are invited (and highly encouraged!) to tweet with David throughout the day and meet up with him as he journeys around destinations in San Francisco. The event will kick off this week as locals, tourists, travel lovers, and Twitter followers are invited to help plan the ideal one-day San Francisco itinerary by tweeting their favorite city spots using hash tag #traveltweetup. The day of the event, Twitter followers will join Lytle via Twitter and in person as he tours the city according to the most popular user suggestions. The event will culminate with Lytle's talk at the Ferry Building's Book Passage. Book Passage gift certificates will be raffled off to participants who meet up with Lytle during the day and attend the event.

David Lytle is the editorial director for Frommers.com, the online companion to America's best-selling travel guides, and regularly hosts the weekly Frommers.com Podcast. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News & ABC News, and radio stations across the country. His travel advice has appeared on Smartmoney.com and Businessweek.com, as well as in the Washington Post, US News & World Report, the New York Post, the New York Times and more.

Frommer's official Twitter feed is at twitter.com/frommerstravel, and Lytle's San Francisco tour can be followed on twitter.com/davitydave on October 1st. The hash tag for this event is #traveltweetup.