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This was our fourth full year of publishing Perceptive Travel and we continued on the mission of putting out the best travel stories on the internet, all written by published book authors. We won more awards, got more stories into anthologies, and hopefully made a lot of readers happy by avoiding the fluff and taking a more literary path.
January kicked things off with Kirkegaard in Mongolia by Edward Readicker–Henderson, Sex, Lies and Desert Dust at Burning Man by Brad Olsen, and Strange Sensations in Iceland by yours truly. Graham Reid reviewed the Bar Mexico double disc; Ost Klub, Kapitel 2; Cuba’s Omara Portuondo; and heartbreaking songs from Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico. The travel book reviews focused on Spiral Jetta, State by State, and Lonely Planet’s The Europe Book.
In the February issue, Joel Carillet brings you a story about Amritsar, India, that involves the search for a taboo pizza and even more unholy things on a cell phone screen. Michael Buckley relates the strange story of a mystical Tibetan lama that was not at all what he appeared. Graham Reid visits Uluru in Australia and takes a different path to avoid the tour buses.
I step up to do the world music reviews, from African Reggae to Tuvan throat singers. See it all here: Perceptive Travel February ’09.
For March, Luke Armstrong brought his tale of riding a breaking bike through a beautiful valley in Cuba. Darrin DuFord had a very different take on New Orleans, riding around with a SWAT team tasked with trying to keep giant canal rats in check. Chris Epting visitedsome of the subjects in his upcoming title The Birthplace Book: offbeat, often hard-to-find spots where something important happened. (Or in Captain Kirk’s case, will happen.)
Laurence Mitchell reviewed some cool world music releases and I review two books. Hint: one has three verbs with a common in between them, but this one definitely won’t become a ladies’ book club staple. See them all here.
In the April issue, the Mexico City story was mine, touching on sinking cathedrals and the racial divide in the huge metropolis. Maliha Masood’s Breaking Frontiers piece was about a trip up the Khyber Pass to the Afghanistan border. Steve McNutt’s story was on a day when simple plans for a day don’t go so simply: Lost in the Mangroves of Belize. Plus as usual, we checked out some albums from around the world worth giving a spin.
May brought us the publication of the book Best Travel Writing 2009 – featuring three stories from the pages of Perceptive Travel. That’s worth puffing the chest up for, but three other writers inside the covers have also written for us in the past. We publish good stuff from good travel writers. I promise. So go check it out.
In our issue that month, we had A Technicolor Dream Cruise from Amy Rosen and Where Queens Come for a Fight by Donald Strachan, just your typical Italian fighting cows story. The Goddess Still Lives Here by Beebe Bahrami focused on northwest Spain and Salmon and Red Cedar by Pam Mandel took us to British Columbia, Canada
In the June ’09 issue of Perceptive Travel, Bruce Northam returned from a trip to Honduras feeling better about his fashion sense. Chris Epting, whose Let’s Spend the Night Together story got him into the Best Travel Writing anthology from Travelers’ Tales, provided a rundown on historic watering holes and cocktail birthplaces. Luke Armstrong started off with a common backpacker tale of a carefree young man in Nicaragua with a guitar, common that is until he runs into a drunk ex-revolutionary.
I chime in with reviews of some new world music albums: Putumayo Presents Italia, the debut from Santero, and the satisfying British rocker meets African blues combo from Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara.
July’s issue featured a rundown of graphic travel novels from Marie Javins. Then Michael Buckley went picnicking at the ruins of Angkor Wat, Carolyn B. Heller found herself in an earthquake zone in China on the week the earth shook, and an upstate New Yorker headed to Vermont to see if all those green living claims are for real.
In the August ’09 issue of Perceptive Travel we zip around from Sardinia to Italy, from New Mexico to Tennessee, and around the world through headphones. Eliot Stein runs around Sardinia until his feet bleed and I tour the strange Atomic City in Oak Ridge, where A-bomb research and production went on in secret. Edward Readicker-Henderson takes a vacation in Italy after being told may only have a year to live.
For September, Saigon resident Richard Sterling returned with A Dollar and a Dime in Vietnam. David Lee Drotar returned with Signs of Alien Life Among Us, based on his trip to Quebec City. Rachel Dickinson, author of Falconer on the Edge, debuted with her story Cliff Notes From Beyond. David Farley reviewed two books: The Billionaire’s Vinegar and Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World’s Holy Dead. Travel book reviews. I got on a tear and dove into five world music CDs, with music from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Tuva.
October’s issue featured polar bears on Hudson Bay in very northern Canada, by Amy Rosen. Luke Armstrong returned with a tale about Guatemala, Lake Atitlan, and that chain-smoking wooden godhead Maximón. We welcomed frequent Travelers’ Tales anthologies editor Amy Carlson with her tale of hiking the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail in Japan.
Graham Reid reviews some interesting new world music CDs and I review three new travel books, including the disgustingly entertaining Extreme Cuisine book.
In November, Bruce Northam contributed a piece on leaving the beach resorts behind and hiking through the highlands of Fiji. Brad Olsen looked into some mysterious stone structures built throughout New England. Jim Johnston waded into the travel conundrum known as Myanmar. Gillian Kendall returned to review travel books, while I write up some new world music reviews.
In the last issue of the year, check out Kristin Olson’s account of a fashion show in Kabul, then hike high into the Andes to meet a shaman with Sharon Spence Lieb, or bike down the Road of Death with Carla Seidl.
I plowed through a bunch of books and published reviews of three worth buying, all good potential holiday gifts by the way. So check out these travel book reviews.
We hope you enjoyed this rundown of some of the best 2009 travel stories. As always, we give away some loot to the newsletter subscribers. Click over to the Perceptive Travel home page and sign up on the top right if you haven’t already. See older travel stories in the Perceptive Travel archives.
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