The Best American Travel Writing 2015 (58 page)

She also had sheep, geese, ducks, and chickens. And she grew feed corn. Because the cash flow from the animals was small, she worked six days a week at the East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging as a caregiver and nursing assistant. Early in the morning and after her day at the agency, she did the farm chores, feeding and watering the animals, repairing fences, collecting eggs. She went to livestock management classes. “I made a lot of friends there. We're all trying to accomplish the same things.”

Easygoing, uncomplaining, yet tenacious, Delores Walker Robinson had all the qualities that made a successful farmer—a great work ethic, a strong will, a love of the land, a way with animals, a fearlessness at the bank, a vision of the future, a gift for taking the long view, a desire for self-sufficiency. “I'm looking ten years down the road,” she said as we tramped the sloping lane. “I want to build up the herd and do this full-time.”

Many southerners I met asserted—with grim pride, or with sorrow, or misquoting Faulkner—that the South doesn't change. That's not true. In many places, the cities most of all, the South has been turned upside down; in the rural areas the change has come very slowly, in small but definite ways. The poet William Blake wrote, “He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars,” and the Delta farmers I visited, and especially Delores Robinson, were the embodiment of that valiant spirit. She had shaken herself loose from another life to come home with her children, and she seemed iconic in her bravery, on her farm, among friends. It goes without saying that the vitality of the South lies in the self-awareness of its deeply rooted people. What makes the South a pleasure for a traveler like me, more interested in conversation than sightseeing, is the heart and soul of its family narratives—its human wealth.

Based in Copenhagen,
Lisa Abend
is a correspondent for
Time
magazine and a contributing writer for
AFAR
. She is also the author of
The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen of Ferran Adrià's elBulli
.

Scott Anderson
is a veteran war correspondent, a novelist, and a contributing writer for
The New York Times Magazine
. “Lawrence's Arabia,” his first piece for
Smithsonian
magazine, was inspired by the five years he spent researching and writing his international bestseller,
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East
. “After poring so long over historical documents in archives,” Anderson says, “I was anxious to visit—or in some cases revisit—those places in the Middle East that played a key role in T. E. Lawrence's story. It was fascinating to see the physical disparity, with some places all but unrecognizable from a century ago while others have barely changed at all.” On a more political level, Anderson discovered a dispiriting change. “There have always been two camps in the Arab world in regard to the Lawrence legend, those who believe he truly did try to help the Arabs gain their independence in World War I, and those who believe he was a scheming agent for British imperialism all along. It's a measure of how deeply the West is distrusted throughout the Middle East today—a distrust amply earned—that the latter view is now almost universally held.”

Kevin Baker
is the author of five novels, most recently
The Big Crowd
(2013), set mainly in postwar New York and based closely on the greatest unsolved murder in Mob history. He is also the author or coauthor of a contemporary novel, a graphic novel, two works of American history, and an as-told-to memoir by Reggie Jackson,
Becoming Mr. October
. Baker is a contributing editor at
Harper's
Magazine
and a frequent contributor to the
New York Times
, and has written for many other newspapers and magazines. He is a member of the executive board of the Society of American Historians and lives in New York City.

Along with two books of travel essays,
Guatemalan Journey
and
Green Dreams: Travels in Central America
,
Stephen Connely Benz
has published essays in
Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, TriQuarterly
, and other journals. One of his essays appeared in
The Best American Travel Writing 2003
. He teaches professional writing at the University of New Mexico and leads workshops in travel writing at the Taos Summer Writers' Conference.

Benjamin Busch
is a writer, filmmaker, and photographer. He served 16 years as an infantry and light armored reconnaissance officer in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to Iraq in 2003 and again in 2005. As an actor he is best known for his portrayal of Officer Colicchio in the HBO series
The Wire
. He is the author of a memoir,
Dust to Dust
(2012), and his essays have appeared in
Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek/The Daily Beast
, and NPR's
All Things Considered
. His poetry has appeared in
North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Five Points, The Florida Review, Oberon
, and
Michigan Quarterly Review
, among others.

Madeline Drexler
is an award-winning journalist, author, and travel essayist. She is editor of
Harvard Public Health
magazine and a senior fellow at Brandeis University's Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. Drexler's articles have appeared in the
New York Times,
the
Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Tricycle
, and many other national publications. Her book
Emerging Epidemics: The Menace of New Infections
(2010) drew wide praise. Drexler began her career as a staff photographer for the Associated Press. She is currently working on a new series of essays based on a return reporting trip to Bhutan.

David Farley
is the author of
An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town
, which most recently became a documentary by the National Geographic Channel. He's a contributing writer at
AFAR
and also writes regularly for the
New York Times
, the
Wall Street Journal
, and
Bon Appétit
, among other publications. Farley teaches writing at New York University. Find him online at
www.dfarley.com
.

Lauren Groff
is the author of the novels
Fates and Furies
,
Arcadia
, and
The Monsters of Templeton
and the short story collection
Delicate Edible Birds
. Her work has appeared in
The
New Yorker
,
The
Atlantic
, and
Harper's Magazine
, as well as in three editions of the
Best American Short Stories
anthology and
100 Years of The Best American Short Stories
. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

In 1996,
Peter Hessler
arrived in China as a teacher with the Peace Corps, and he stayed on for more than a decade, writing a trilogy of nonfiction books about the country:
River Town, Oracle Bones
, and
Country Driving
. He is also the author of
Strange Stones
, a collection of his articles. He currently lives with his wife and twin daughters in Cairo, where he is working on a book about post-revolution Egypt.

Rachael Maddux
is a writer and editor whose essays and features have appeared in
Oxford American
,
The Believer
,
Guernica
, and elsewhere. She was raised in Tennessee and lives in Atlanta.

Patricia Marx
is a staff writer for
The New Yorker
. Her latest book is
Let's Be Less Stupid: An Attempt to Maintain My Mental Faculties
(2015). She overpacks for everything, including once for jury duty.

Tim Neville
is a correspondent for
Outside, Ski
, and
Skiing
magazines and a frequent contributor to the
New York Times
travel section. His work has also appeared in
The Best American Sports Writing
. He lives in Oregon with his wife and daughter. Follow him @tim_neville.

Maud Newton
is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in
Harper's Magazine
,
The
New York Times Magazine, Narrative, Oxford American, Granta, Bookforum, The Awl
, and many other publications. She received the 2009 Narrative Prize and is writing a book about the science and superstition of ancestry.

Adriana Páramo
is a cultural anthropologist, writer, and women's rights advocate. Her book
Looking for Esperanza
(2012)
, winner of Benu Press's 2011 Social Justice and Equity Award in Creative Nonfiction, was named one of the top 10 best books by Latino authors in 2012 by
thelatinoauthor.com
and the Best Women's Issues Book at the 2013 International Latino Book Awards, and was also an award winner at the 2012 Book of the Year Awards. She is the author of
My Mother's Funeral
, a work of nonfiction set in Colombia. Páramo's work has won numerous awards and honors, including multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, and it has been noted in
The Best American Essays
of 2012, 2013, and 2014. She has been named one of the top 10 Latino authors in the USA by
LatinoStories.com
. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in
The Sun, The Georgia Review, Southern Sin, Brevity, The Fourth Genre, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Going Om,
and others. She keeps a travel blog:
www.paramoadriana.com/travel-blog
.

Nick Paumgarten
is a staff writer at
The New Yorker
. He lives in New York City. Raised in Australia and a denizen of the East Village of Manhattan for many years,
Tony Perrottet
is a contributing writer at
Smithsonian
and a regular at the
New York Times, WSJ Magazine
, and other publications. He is the author of five books, most recently
Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped
and
The Sinner's Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe
. He is currently working on a book about adventurers in 1930s China. This is his sixth appearance in the
Best American Travel Writing
series.

Lauren Quinn
is a writer and teacher currently living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in
The Believer, Guernica, The Guardian
, and
Hazlitt
, among others.

Monte Reel
is the author of the books
Between Man and Beast
and
The Last of the Tribe
. His essays and articles have appeared in publications including
The
New York Times Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Outside, Businessweek
, and
The Believer
, among others. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Paul Salopek
is a freelance journalist who has reported on conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Balkans, and Latin America. His work has appeared in the
New York Times, National Geographic,
the
Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, American Scholar, The Best American Travel Writing
, and other publications. His reportage has earned two Pulitzer Prizes. He is currently walking across the world as part of a seven-year narrative project called the Out of Eden Walk; see
www.outofedenwalk.com
.

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, Washington Post Book World
, the
San Francisco Chronicle
, the
Chicago Tribune
, and many other publications. 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 20 languages. He lives in New York City. His most recent work is the memoir
Little Failure
.

Iris Smyles
's stories and essays have appeared in
The Atlantic,
the
New York Times,
the
New York Observer, BOMB
, and other publications. She has written two books of fiction:
Iris Has Free Time
and the forthcoming
Dating Tips for the Unemployed
. She lives in New York and Greece. Visit her online at
IrisSmyles.com
.

Christopher Solomon
writes about travel, outdoor pursuits, science, and the environment for the
New York Times, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics
, and other publications. He is a contributing editor at both
Outside
and
Runner's World
. This is his second appearance in
The Best American Travel Writing
. His work also appeared in
The Best American Sports Writing 2014
. A former reporter for the
Seattle Times
, Solomon lives in Seattle. Find more of his work at
chrissolomon.net
.

Patrick Symmes
writes: “I am a correspondent and travel writer for national magazines and the author of two books on the Cuban Revolution,
Chasing Che
(2000) and
The Boys from Dolores
(2007). The latter made the
New York Times
Ten Best Books list for 2007. I have been a contributing editor at
Harper's
Magazine, Outside
, and
Condé Nast Traveler
, and after more than 20 years of writing about the remote regions of the world and the ragged edges of geopolitics, I am surprised to find that I crave even more.”