The Best American Travel Writing 2011 (41 page)

 

Jessica McCaughey
is a writer and adjunct professor at George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College, where she teaches writing, literature, and English as a second language. She earned her B.A. in English at Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington) and both an M.A. in English and an M.F.A. in creative writing at George Mason University. Her work has appeared in
The Colorado Review, Silk Road, Phoebe
, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a book examining fear from both a scientific and personal perspective. Jessica lives in Arlington, Virginia, and can be found on-line at [email protected].

 

Justin Nobel
covers science and culture for magazines and pens a blog about death for the funeral industry and another where he sits for hours in one New York City spot. He lives in Blissville, a sliver of forgotten New York.

 

Téa Obreht
was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and spent her childhood in Cyprus and Egypt before eventually immigrating to the United States in 1997. Her writing has been published in
The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story
, the
New York Times
, and the
Guardian
, and has been anthologized in
The Best American Short Stories
and
The Best American Nonrequired Reading.
Her first novel,
The Tiger's Wife
, was published in 2011. She has been named by
The New Yorker
as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation's list of 5 Under 35. She lives in Ithaca, New York.

 

Annie Proulx
is the author of eight books, including the novel
The Shipping News
and the story collection
Close Range.
Her many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner Award. Her story "Brokeback Mountain," which originally appeared in
The New Yorker
, was made into an Academy Award–winning film. Her memoir
Bird Cloud
was published in 2011. She lives in Wyoming.

 

Gary Shteyngart
was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut novel,
The Russian Debutante's Handbook
, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His second novel,
Absurdistan
, was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the
New York Times Book Review
, as well as a best book of the year by
Time
, the
Washington Post Book World
, the
San Francisco Chronicle
, the
Chicago Tribune
, and many other publications. His novel
Super Sad True Love Story
was published in 2010. He has been selected as one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists. His work has appeared in
The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ
and
Travel
+
Leisure
, and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City.

 

William T. Vollmann
is the author of seven novels, three collections of stories, and a seven-volume critique of violence,
Rising Up and Rising Down.
He is also the author of
Poor People
, an examination of poverty worldwide through the eyes of the impoverished themselves;
Riding Toward Everywhere
, an investigation of the train-hopping hobo lifestyle; and
Imperial
, a panoramic look at Mexican California. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction, a Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize, and a Whiting Writers' Award. His journalism and fiction have been published in
The New Yorker, Esquire, Spin
, and
Granta.

 

Emily Witt
is a journalist currently based in New York. She has been a staff reporter at the
New York Observer
and the
Miami New Times
and has published essays, articles, and reviews in
N
+
1, Foreign Policy
on-line, the
New York Times
, and
The Nation.
She was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to Mozambique and has also lived in Brazil, Chile, and England.

P
HYLLIS
B
ARBER
The Knife Handler.
Agni
, vol. 71.

E
LIF
B
ATUMAN
The Memory Kitchen.
The New Yorker
, April 19.
Summer in Samarkand, Part II.
N
+
1
, Spring.

F
RANK
B
URES
The Roads Between Us: A Journey Across Africa.
World Hum
, April 19.

 

E
RIC
C
ALDERWOOD
The Road to Damascus.
New England Review
, vol. 31, no. 3.

S
EBASTIAN
C
OPELAND
Alone Across Greenland.
Men's Journal
, December/January.

 

J
OHN
D'A
GATA
What Happens There.
The Believer
, January.

A
VI
D
AVIS
Creatures of Other Mould.
The Believer
, November/December.

M
ARCIA
D
ESANCTIS
Strangers on a Train.
New York Times Magazine
, July 16.

B
ILL
D
ONAHUE
A Pilgrimage to SkyMall.
World Hum
, January 26.

 

B
RIAN
T. E
DWARDS
Watching
Shrek
in Tehran.
The Believer
, March/April.

E
THAN
E
PSTEIN
Staring at North Korea.
Slate
, October 7.

 

I
AN
F
RAZIER
On the Prison Highway.
The New Yorker
, August 30.

A. A. G
ILL
Loch, Stalk, and Burials.
Vanity Fair
, January.

A
ARON
G
ULLEY
Shaken.
Outside
, October.

 

E
RIC
H
ANSEN
Steamed.
Outside
, August.

P
ETER
H
ESSLER
Go West.
The New Yorker
, April 19.

M
ANNY
H
OWARD
Sauvage Grace.
New York Times Magazine
, September 26.

 

P
ICO
I
YER
Forever Foreign.
Smithsonian
, June.
Istanbul, City of the Future.
National Geographic Traveler
, October.
Lover's Moon.
World Hum
, March 15.

 

R
OWAN
J
ACOBSEN
Heart of Dark Chocolate.
Outside
, September.
The Spill Seekers.
Outside
, November.

M
ARK
J
ENKINS
The Forgotten Road.
National Geographic
, May.

A
LDEN
J
ONES
The Burmese Dream Series.
Post Road
, vol. 19.

 

J
OHN
L
ANCASTER
Pakistan's Heartland Under Threat.
National Geographic
, July.

A
NTHONY
L
ANE
Only Mr. God Knows Why.
The New Yorker
, June 28.

J
ESSICA
L
EVINE
My Two Weeks as a Fellini Extra.
The Southern Review
, Fall.

G
REG
L
INDSAY
Triumph of the Air Warriors.
Condé Nast Traveler
, February.

 

C
HADWICK
M
ATLIN
30 Airports in 30 Days.
Slate
, November 12.

A
NDREW
M
C
C
ARTHY
L.A. Dreamin'.
National Geographic Traveler
, November/December.

E
MILY
M
EEHAN
The Humanitarian's Dilemma.
Slate
, June 25.

J
ONATHAN
M
ILES
A Chowhound's Caribbean Cruise.
Food and Wine
, October.

S
HANE
M
ITCHELL
Out Islands Bahamas.
Travel
+
Leisure
, June.

J. R. M
OEHRINGER
Winner Take All.
Smithsonian
, October.

J
OYCE
C
AROL
O
ATES
Going Home Again.
Smithsonian
, March.

 

A
NN
P
ATCHETT
As American as Cherry Pie.
New York Times Magazine
, May 19.

 

A
PRIL
R
ABKIN
A Visit to the Shrine of Afghanistan's National Hero.
Slate
, September 9.

 

A
LEXIS
S
CHAITKIN
Living Relics.
Ecotone
, Spring.

L
IESL
S
CHILLINGER
Confessions of a Soukaholic.
New York Times Magazine
, May 19.

J
OHN
S
EABROOK
The Last Babylift.
The New Yorker
, May 10.

D
AVID
S
EDARIS
Standing By.
The New Yorker
, August 9.

E
LLEN
R
UPPEL SHELL
Capsized.
New York Times Magazine
, January 24.

R
OBIN
S
HULMAN
World Cup Travels in Post-Apartheid South Africa.
Slate
, July 2.

J
EREMY
S
TAHL
"It's Like a Safari and We're the Zebras."
Slate
, September 21.

K
AYT
S
UKEL
Chet of Arabia.
The Atlantic
, March.

T
HOMAS
S
WICK
A Walk Through Old Japan.
Smithsonian
, October.
Venice in Three Acts.
Afar
, September/October.

P
ATRICK
S
YMMES
The Beautiful and the Dammed.
Outside
, June.
Thirty Days as a Cuban.
Harper's Magazine
, October.

 

D
AMON
T
ABOR
If It's Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban.
Outside
, December.

H
ANNAH
T
ENNANT
-M
OORE
The Sexual Lives of Sri Lankans.
World Hum
, December 17.

G
UY
T
REBAY
Going Postal.
Travel
+
Leisure
, February.

C
ALVIN
T
RILLIN
No Daily Specials.
The New Yorker
, November 22.
Some Like It Hot.
Condé Nast Traveler
, November.

 

J
OHN
W
ASHINGTON
The Local to Mexico City.
The Smart Set
, October 7.

J
OHN
W
RAY
Acquired Taste.
New York Times Magazine
, February 28.

* Several other names have been changed with this same precaution in mind.

[back]

***

* When the Turks began shelling the border—which happened on a Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, family day, hence a paid holiday for the fixer—he roared off to photograph the damage for the newspapers, having declined to invite me. Perhaps he was jealous because I had accepted the interpreter's invitation to picnic with his family beside a river with lovely frogs that quacked like birds, ladies in bright, sparkling, many-layered gauzy skirts, willowlike trees, an ancient cave-cliff tomb dating perhaps to Assyrian times and now brought up-to-date with graffiti, and lamb guts floating in the water like balloons. Shortly after I left Iraq, the fixer was caught in a suicide bombing in downtown Kirkuk. He escaped injury but was attacked afterward by an angry mob who mistook him for a Turkmen and beat him so badly the doctors later thought the metal embedded in his face was shrapnel from the explosion.

[back]