The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 13 is out today—the culmination of a year and a half of reading, selecting, editing, compiling, proofreading, writing, and sometimes hyperventilating. And now: celebrating!
It feels like a momentous day, and yet, it’s a day like any other: My husband is noisily ripping up the ratty carpet in our hallway, and the clay garden gnome my son worked on for hours last night just crumbled to pieces in the oven, so my son crumbled to pieces, too. It’s the day I’ve been long awaiting—and a day that also requires my participation in everyday life things.
Still: filling the nooks and cubbies of my mind is a warm glow, a glimmer of awareness that this new collection of stories by brilliant women who poured their wide-open hearts and wisdom onto the page will land in mailboxes around the planet today! (As proof, my wonderful editorial assistant, Emma, who lives in Singapore, just received hers.) The collection will be added to bookshop shelves and tables. And maybe it will inspire someone to book a flight, or become a companion for someone who would like to travel but currently can’t. I know some stories will widen worldviews and offer new avenues of thought about the complexities and rewards of travel. I also know some stories will make people cry, and make people laugh. If nothing else, I hope it will be a reminder that in these harrowing times, our world is still a magical place filled with kindhearted humans.
Are you attending our virtual launch tonight? I hope so! You ought to! We’ll hear short readings from Susan Orlean, Cherene Sherrard, Laura Killingbeck, Caletha Crawford, and Kristin Winet—and more contributors will make cameos! We’ll raise our glasses to the alchemical combination of travel tales and women’s voices, and we’ll host a brief Q&A at the end, so bring your questions! The party starts at 5 pm pacific/8 pm eastern, and will last about an hour, and I’d be thrilled to see you there! HERE’S THE LINK TO REGISTER!
(Please pass it on—invite someone you know who loves to travel!)
Oh yes I did! In part because my introduction to the anthology is about music, so it made sense—but also because procrastination loves a playlist.
The Best Women's Travel Playlist!
This one is filled with songs about life on the road and good times and general badassery. And it’s all women artists! At first this proved tricky because there were some tunes by men I desperately wanted to include, such as “And She Was” by The Talking Heads, “Freedom” by Jon Batiste, and “All Over the World” by ELO (fun fact: as a child I was in an ELO cover band—a story for another time). But in the end, I decided it needed to be all women artists—and that lead me to some phenomenal covers, including “On the Road again” by First Aid Kit, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Yola, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Lake Street Dive, “Wildflowers” by the Wailing Jennies, and “I Remember Everything” by Brandi Carlile. I even found that old classic testosterone-fueled man-anthem “Born to Be Wild” remade by a woman! Hell yeah. I hope you enjoy my playlist—and please comment with ideas for songs to add!
An in-person event!
I’ll be at P&T Knitwear in New York next Saturday, June 13th, introducing The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 13 and supporting five contributors who will read from their essays: Paulette Perhach, Marcia DeSanctis, Caletha Crawford, Theresa Lin, and Marta Hanson. If you’re in NYC, get your tickets here!
Also, I’d be really grateful if you’d share this post and get the word out.
One last thing: I’ve already mentioned the importance of early orders and first-week sales. Another super helpful thing you can do is request that your library purchases the book! You can also add it to a “to read” Goodreads list, or even better, post a review on Goodreads! (Or anywhere—even that website-that-shall-not-be-named but starts with A and ends with zon.) The Best Women’s Travel Writing features many illustrious writers, but it’s published by a small independent press, so every bit of amplification helps!
I’m endlessly grateful for all your love and support—and I hope to see you tonight!
Lavinia
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