2022-23 SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition
122 Travel Book (other than guidebook) ( Travel Audio-Podcasts and Guides,Travel Audio-Radio,Travel Magazines,Travel Coverage in General Magazines,Newspapers)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Pico Iyer Entry Title: The Half Known Life: In search of Paradise Entry Credit: Pico Iyer Judge Comment: Long-time prodigious, intellectual author Pico Iyer offers chapters with geographic spread. But this book is as much about inner travel — exploring the mind and the soul — as about physical travel. The globe is home to many lands with varying spiritual traditions; Iyer explores an extraordinary number of those traditions, relating them masterfully to his own life and to the lives of his readers. The book’s title is especially intriguing: What is a “half-known life?” And how does he define “paradise”?
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: William Frej Entry Title: Travels Across the Roof of the World: A Himalayan Memoir Entry Credit: William Frej, Anne Frej, David Skolkin, Edwin Bernbaum, Joanna Hurley Judge Comment: This looks like a massive coffee-table book at first glance, and it is indeed visually gorgeous. Yet the contents are so much more than eye candy. The photographs of William Frej are stunning. The words he contributes with Anne Frej complement the images achingly well. Add the scholarly essay by Edwin Bernbaum and the book’s foreword, and the result is a combination of wonder. The “roof of the world” signifies the collective region termed the Himalayas. Daily life tends to be isolated and hard on the mountains and in their valleys. The work chronicles more than 20 treks by the authors in the regions of what today is termed Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, plus parts of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Travelers' Tales Entry Title: A Hard Place to Leave: Stories from a Restless Life Entry Credit: Marcia DeSanctis Judge Comment: Marcia DeSanctis is a keen observer and a lyrical writer. Each essay leaves readers with new learning plus vivid portraits of people in a variety of geographic locales. Restless, indeed, and thank goodness for the restlessness.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Beebe Bahrami Entry Title: The Way of the Wild Goose: Three Pilgrimages Following Geese, Stars, and Hunches on the Camino de Santiago Entry Credit: Beebe Bahrami Judge Comment: Beebe Bahrami is by any standard a pilgrim, questing for enlightenment on the iconic Camino de Santiago in Spain and France. While many pilgrims have traversed the Camino, probably no pilgrim has noticed, then documented, all that Bahrami includes within the pages of “The Way of the Wild Goose.” The combination of the three pilgrimages feels mystical at times yet also nicely grounded.
