Around midnight on Saturday, I sat in a piazza under a perfectly full moon listening to my new friend
Pam Mandel strum a ukulele. On my left, legendary travel writer
Don George crooned "I Will Survive," while across the table, San Francisco Chronicle travel editor
Spud Hilton plucked at his own ukulele. On my right, award-winning photographer
Liza Gershmann used my iphone to search for lyrics to an Indigo Girls' tune, and World Hum's
Jim Benning sang a Death Cab for Cutie song. Together, we belted out "Rocket Man," "The Rainbow Connection," and "It Had to Be You." Our coda was "Summertime"--the perfect song to end the perfect evening.
You really should've been there.
Let me rephrase that: you really
could have been there.
This was no private party for the travel-writing elite or some secret society of travelerati. It was the annual
Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference in Corte Madera, California--open to anyone and hands down the most exciting writing event I've ever attended. Consider this: there's no application process, no previous publishing credits required. No judgment, ego, or cliques, and absolutely no limit to the connections you can make.
I spent four days in Corte Madera. During that time, I discussed the origin of my name with
Andrew McCarthy over lunch; sipped absinthe with the hilariously irreverent
David Farley; laughed in the afternoon sun with travel-writing God
Tim Cahill; discussed travel journaling books with
Phil Cousineau; drank wine with Dame
Georgia Hess; hung around with Travelers' Tales co-founder
Larry Habegger; bonded with veteran conference attendees
Abbie Kozolchyk,
Jill Robinson, and
Marcy Gordon, spilled lemonade on
Jeff Greenwald before he released seven live snakes into the audience; overshared about my personal life with
AFAR executive editor
Julia Cosgrove; and debated the literary merits of the words "slut" and "whore" with
Spud Hilton. And in the process, I made friends. So many wonderful new friends.
And next year you can do the same.
On day one, novelist/poet/travel writer
Linda Watanabe McFerrin addressed the conference attendees. "Park your shrinking violet at the door," she instructed. This was it--the best chance you might ever get to network with people whose words you may have only read in the pages of
National Geographic Adventure; your opportunity to clink glasses with Lowell Thomas award winners, to make an impression on someone who could literally change your life.
Janice Cooke Newman also spoke, introducing herself as "the poster girl" for the BP conference; once an unpublished attendee, she was now on faculty and the author of two award-winning books, as well as numerous articles published in
The LA Times,
The San Francisco Chronicle, and
Backpacker.
The conference isn't free (or even cheap, for that matter), but for what you get, it's an uncommonly good deal. Moreover, I'm here to tell you it's worth it. Even at twice the cost, it would be worth it.
Admittedly, I'm not a fledgling writer. I've written two books and edited one, I contribute regularly to Yoga Journal, and I've published in a number of magazines and online. I'll confess that my main objective in attending the conference wasn't to learn, but to put faces to the online names I knew by heart. I wanted to meet some of my travel-writing heroes, and I did. In fact, I did more than meet them.
I sang karaoke with them.
But guess what: it turns out I
did learn. A lot.
In four days, I learned everything I ever wanted to know about writing for newspapers, pitching stories, and structuring a travel story. I learned how to get a foot in at magazines like
AFAR and
Sunset. I learned what editors appreciate (gratitude, honesty, focus) and what they detest (press trips, plagiarism, staycations). I even learned how to improve my website. As you can tell from my photos, I did
not attend any of the photography classes. I wish I had, so I could have learned to take a picture that did justice to this extraordinary conference.
Next year.
On Sunday afternoon,
Don George and I were talking for a few minutes in the parking lot, discussing the previous night--the full moon, karaoke, wine, camaraderie, and finally, that amazing ukulele singalong.
"It was magic," Don said. "Wasn't it?"
Yes, I agreed. It was.
And this is mostly what I learned--that when you take the leap and invest in your passion; when you trust that it'll be worth it, it will be more than worth it.
It will be magic.
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Register for the 2012 Conference >>
August 9-12, 2012
51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925
(San Francisco Bay Area)
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 at 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 >>
Conference Coordinator: Kathryn Petrocelli
(800) 999-7909, ext. 239
Email the coordinator
Register >>
