Best American Travel Writing 2020

by Jason Wilson (Editor), Robert Macfarlane (Editor)

The year’s best travel writing, as chosen by series editor Jason Wilson and guest editor Robert Macfarlane.

Writing, reading, and dreaming about travel have surged, writes Robert MacFarlane in his introduction to the Best American Travel Writing 2020 . From an existential reckoning in avalanche school, to an act of kindness at the Mexican-American border, to a moral dilemma at a Kenyan orphanage, the journeys showcased in this collection are as spiritual as they are physical. These stories provide not just remarkable entertainment, but also, as MacFarlane says, deep comfort, “carrying hope, creating connections, transporting readers to other-worlds, and imagining alternative presents and alternative futures.”
  The Best American Travel 2020 includes
HEIDI JULAVITS • YIYUN LI • PAUL SALOPEK • LACY JOHNSON •
 EMMANUEL IDUMA • JON MOOALLEM • EMILY RABOTEAU and others

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Essays, Short Stories, Adventure, Anthologies

336 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2020

About the author

JASON WILSON is the author of Godforsaken Grape: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine, to be published in April by Abrams Books.
Wilson is also the author of Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits, and the series editor of The Best American Travel Writing since its inception in 2000.
A regular contributor to the Washington Post, Wilson wrote an award-winning drinks column for years. Wilson has also been beer columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, dining critic for the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine, and has written for the New York Times, NewYorker.com, AFAR, National Geographic Traveler, and many other magazines and newspapers.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best of the series yet. Only one essay I considered a bit of a dud, all the rest had something interesting and thought-inducing to offer about our fascinating yet unideal world with its beauty and problems. I particularly liked traveling about NYC in the context of its vulnerability to sea rise. Also the graciousness of some toward orphans and immigrants. Plus half of the essays were by women and many by people of color. Yay!

[Cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first time reading this publication but I’m definitely going to make it a yearly occurrence. I read all but two of the short stories and they were all so enjoyable.

[Kate Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great swath of travel articles. Great if you love armchair voyages but aren't sure you want to dedicate yourself to an entire book of a single destination or a single voice.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty disappointing collection overall, though there were some interesting stories. The introduction was written right around the time of the lockdowns of 2020 and reflects the general angst, stress, fear and stupidity that marked that moment in time. The stories that followed are full of a similar mix of emotions. In fact, you might not want to travel ever again after reading these stories which focus heavily on the evil '-isms' and the general idea that the planet is dying and we are the cause. Due in some part to our propensity for travel, existing, and voting for Donald Trump among other crimes. Some of the other stories are quirky and offbeat such as the 'The Last of the Great American Hobos' and the annual gathering in Britt, Iowa and 'Lost in Summerland' where the psychics and mystics gather in Lily Dale, NY for a week of seances and summonings. The Rick Steve's story was mildly interesting and the one on the travels of Thomas Merton. None of it is 'conventional' travel writing which is fine but in trying SO hard to be appropriately worried and relentlessly 'awake' it is a trip I would rather have missed.

[Tanja Špes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vsak potopis/esej mi je odstrl neko novo plat. To niso tipični potopisi, se mi zdi, da ni v ospredju posamezen kraj, ampak univerzalne in aktualne teme - npr. migracije, podnebne spremembe, rasizem ... Meni odlično branje.

[Jan Haan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love short stories and this book included one about my hometown. Would be a great summer read.

[Nichelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

will read this anthology every year when it comes out!

[Ashley Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful collection of diverse stories and experiences by a wide range of authors! I’m very impressed by their selection. It kind of reminded me of my favorite film festival (Banff) with a smattering of short and long stories that left me aching for travel.

[Perri · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a year without travel, this book is a particular must if you need a potent reminder of Why We Move.

I don't give many five stars, and I don't think I ever have to BATW, but this collection really was outstanding. Perhaps some of it has to do with the armchair travel thrills after a year of being stationary, but I think that'd be short-selling these authors of their innate talents of capturing the soul of so many places. It'd be easier to mention the stories I didn't care for (and thankfully those stories were only a few pages) than the many, many ones I loved but here are a few that really blew me away:

#1: "The Last of the Great American Hobos" by Jeff MacGregor from Smithsonian. I don't think there was a single sentence I didn't like in this story of Britt, Iowa. Probably the best nonfiction short story I've ever read. To give anything away from this one would do it injustice so I'll let you read it for yourself.

#2: "Lost in Summerland" by Barrett Swanson from The Atavist Magazine. I don't think there was a single sentence I didn't like in this story of Lily Dale, New York, excepts for one that began with an unnecessary "Indeed." Riveting and powerful. His book of the same title comes out this spring so I will definitely pick it up (https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-...).

#3: "The Shape of Water" by Stephanie Pearson from Outside. Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness comes to vivid life in this moving story about two sisters on a paddling trip.

#4: "On the Road with Thomas Merton" by Fred Bahnson from Emergence Magazine. A traipse across California and New Mexico in search of silence, and something greater than ourselves.

#5: "The Volunteer's Dilemma" by Ken Budd from The Washington Post Magazine; "To Hold Oneself Together" by Yiyun Li from T: The New York Times Style Magazine; "Who Lives in Palermo Is Palermo" by Ashley Powers from Airbnb Magazine...as you can see, I'm having a hard time narrowing things down.

The only two that weren't for me were "To the Follower of Cheikh Bamba Whom I met in Dakar" by Emmanuel Iduma from Off Assignment and "Life, Death, and the Border Patrol" by Jackie Bryant from Sierra.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I collect this particular annual series of travel essays for a reason - not only are they wonderful compilations of unique essays with lesser amplified or know voices, but they also usually capture the year’s themes in a prescient way. For example, this 2020 book not only Included arm chair travel at its finest, but it was also heavy on themes of racism, climate change, refugees and Iceland - All of which are very 2020 themes. (Can’t wait to read the 2021 book to see how COVID and pandemic travels are captured for posterity.)

There were two essays that I found weak, but still better than I could get published 🤪 so not scoffing at them. They also added a new dimension (& region) to the compendium.

I love collecting this series and look forward to its release every year. I love the diversity of voices, locations, styles and publications. Definitely worth the time.

[Dave Frye · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit of a slow start with initial stories but finished strong with articles on climate change (excellent- should required reading), Lillydale and discrimination. Lillydale article was one of the best reads I’ve read in this entire series as author describes a visit with his brother to this town of mediums, spirits, orbs, etc., while intertwining personnel family troubles and experiences. Fascinating!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed a few of the essays (particularly the essays on Rick Steves and on Iceland).

[Dori Sabourin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel Writers, unimpeded by Lockdowns, Rose to the Occasion to Share Their Stories

In The Best American Travel Writing 2020, the reader is presented with twenty-five travel essays. In the foreword, a reference is made to Robert MacFarlane: "In The Old Ways, Macfarlane insists that too often we only think of landscapes as affecting us when we are in them. “But,” he writes, “there are also the landscapes we bear with us in absentia, those places that live on in memory long after they have withdrawn in actuality, and such places—retreated to most often when we are most remote from them—are among the most important landscapes we possess.”

This book was written when nearly the whole world's population went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Thus, according to the editor in the Introduction, " People’s bodies are anchored, so they journey in imagination and memory. MacFarlane continues: " Travel writing was in dire need of both decolonization and redirection, and the best writers rose to the challenge by seeking not originality of destination, but originality of form and sensitivity of encounter."

In "Rick Steve's Wants You to Sets You Free," Sam Anderson tells us that in Rick Steve's signature book, "Europe Through the Back Door," Steve made travel seem less like a luxury than a necessary exploration of the self, a civic responsibility, a basic courtesy to your fellow humans. Travel to Steve, Anderson tells us, is not some frivolous luxury—it is an engine for improving humankind, for connecting people and removing their prejudices, for knocking distant cultures together to make unlikely sparks of joy and insight.

In "On the Road with Thomas Merton," Fred Bahnson tells the reader that the peregrini remind us that we go on pilgrimage not to consume experience, but to be consumed; to feel again the porous borders between our inner and outer lives. Bahnson goes on to say that much more than simply an urge to travel, the geographical cure is the belief that whatever problems I’m facing at the moment will magically disappear if only I change zip codes for a day, a month, a lifetime

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” - C.K. Chesterton

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The absurdity of these pandemic years meant that I was intrigued to know what this collection looked like. In reality these pieces were written in 2019 when the world was still travelling and selected in spring 2020 when it stopped.

I found this particular collection to be very uneven in content and quality. I enjoyed about half of the pieces included. Only a few really held my attention: Life, Death, and the Border Patrol by Jackie Bryant where she writes about the humanitarian work undertaken by hikers caching supplies for migrants, What I Learned in Avalanche School by Heidi Julavits which chronicles the author’s choice to go to Avalanche School and what that experience was like, My Father’s Land by Courtney Desiree Morris which delves into the embedded racism in tourist attractions – historical or otherwise, and Vacation Memories Marred by the Indelible Stain of Racism by Shanna B. Tiayon where the discrimination becomes directed squarely on one family in a National Park.
Based on my own work the final two of those pieces struck me as the most pressing, but that isn’t to say runner up pieces such as How to Mourn a Glacier by Lacy M. Jones, Glow by James Lasdun, and The Last of the Great American Hobos by Jeff MacGregor didn’t have their strengths. I’m ignoring the rest which dragged my rating down.

full review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/...

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love learning about our contemporary world from excellent writers, so this is nearly perfect. This edition was extra intriguing because it described our culture of travel just prior to our 2020 pandemic “lockdown,” so I felt a strange vicarious yet mournful pleasure during reading as I also wondered how each of these experiences might never be the same. Such Perfection described natural beauty of Italy’s Lake Como juxtaposed with the author’s realizations about her own imperfections. It was the type of essay that makes the reader shift her own selfish schema ever so slightly. Rick Steves Wants to Set You Free was a bit surprising and refreshingly humorous. What I Learned In Avalanche School is that daredevils occasionally get what one might expect. And there is much more about the Middle East, the plight of migrants, the northern lights, Game of Thrones enthusiasts, the vast archipelago of Aland, etc.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a few stories in this book but was not thrilled with a lot of them. Several of the authors interjected their personal political views into the stories which made me think their stories were biased and did not give a true objective picture of the issue at hand. I think these stories should not be included in this yearly series.

My favorites were: "On the Road with Thomas Merton" and "Rick Steves Wants to Set you Free".

I read the 2017 book in this series and enjoyed it much more as it focused on the culture of various places in the world. I enjoyed reading the 2017 book because it was something that took me away to a different culture rather than troubled issues that we are constantly hearing about in the news and media today as was the case in the 2020 book.

[Edward Warner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit I only read a bit more than half of these stories, being somewhat put off by the pedestrian nature of several. A woman helping immigrants in Mexico? How extraordinary! A pair of sisters meet a bear on a canoe trip in a wilderness area? A bear?

That said, there is one truly amazing tale contained herein and it's that of two brothers who spend a weekend at a "psychics convention." That may sound like a setup for hilarity, but it's not. One of the brothers does seem to have psychic powers, and the other, the narrator, is a true-blue skeptic and has long been out of touch with his brother. It's instead an interesting tale of one brother gaining insight into another and himself, a journey, and thus "travel writing," but of the inner-most sort.

[Alan Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan of these books and saddened to know they are no longer published. Each contains numerous "travel" stories plucked from some of the best magazines and publications.

I put travel in quotation marks because the stories are much less about travel and much more about life in today's world. This is no travelogue, or book about the top ten places to see in some foreign country. There is none of that.

These are stories about people, about immigrants, about racism, about spiritualists and about hobos. All of those and many, many more.

And one of the best parts about it is if you don't like one story (and I liked them all, though certainly, some more than others) you can just go onto the next one.

[Dellanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not your typical travel writing. Those looking for pleasant travelogues or escapism should look elsewhere. A lot of the stories were more about internal journeys than the places visited. As such, some tended to be more about the author and a few bordered on self-absorption. While they were universally well written, many were pretty dark - racism, climate catastrophe, immigration, over tourism, disability to name some of the subjects. I would recommend reading just 1-2 stories at a time. I would not say that I “enjoyed” many of them but I learned quite a bit and was made to think differently and/or more deeply about some topics. And isn’t that one of the purposes of reading?

[Ann Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. So much better than The Best American Food Writing. Both editors try, under time pressure, to respond to the zeitgeist, but this one does it much better. For example, both include first person stories by authors with disabilities. But the one in the Food volume reads like a to-do list. The one in the Travel volume is a breath-taking account of a trip to Lake Como, including a detail in which a man masturbating in the shrubbery sees the author and immediately stops and crosses himself. Not a weak essay in the volume.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It was a gift from a friend who knows that Chuck and I have missed our travels this last year due to the pandemic. It is a collection of travel columns from various publications. Many with profound messages; all superbly written. If you are a traveler or just want to be transported to various parts of the world where the descriptions are beautiful but more importantly, observations of the people, the customs and the values are described, I highly recommend this book.

[Zuska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was strange to read this collection of travel writing, most of it done in the year prior to the pandemic. It's like it came from another lifetime. Not the essays that dealt with climate change, of course; that is still our horrifying present, of course. Just the other, "normal" pieces about experiences with travel in the time before covid.
This collection felt more uneven than some I've read in years past. Some essays I just couldn't finish, which is a rare experience for me. Is it the writing, or is it me - has the pandemic changed my appetite for travel writing? Don't know.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has some of the most compelling articles of any in the series (Lost in Summerland and On the Road with Thomas Merton especially are great examples of pieces that challenges expectations and made me think).

I really, really, really would like to see one of these anthologies not have political writing masquerading as travel. I agree with the politics, but that isn’t why I pick these up and it’s always a downer to come across something where the travel element is very small.

[Udodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving this four stars because it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting something a little lighter, a little more escapist. The essays in this volume were, with the exception of a few, very heavy dealing with topics of climate, change, erasure, discrimination/racism, and others.

Favorite. Essays: Climate Signs, Lost in Summerland, The Last of the Great American Hobos, Such Perfection, To Hold Oneself Together, and My Father’s Land.

[Julie]

Rating an anthology is always difficult. Most of the pieces were thought-provoking and interesting, like the ways in which the past is brought to life through the perpetuation of unjust systems. Others just made me ask more prosaic questions such as, “What am I missing?” or “Why does it feel like you’re using a thesaurus to avoid ‘sentimentality’?”

[Jim Welke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read with some of the best travel writers. There are articles by over 20 different writers and their travels in the US. This also happens to be a book that is pulled together every year. You can probably find older versions of the book at garage sales and used book stores and do lots of traveling from the comfort of your home.

[Edie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing was good but not all the stories were really about travel. Many talked about topics such as political injustices, ecological disasters and racism. It was no surprise that they were depressing. However, that shouldn’t keep you from reading the book. It was compelling and definitely worthwhile.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent foray into a wide variety of topics such as impact of climate change in NYC, development of a land port in Khorgos as part of China’s Belt Road Initiative, and challenges international migrants face in Palermo. These stories helped depict in concrete what people face in each of these current situations.

[Monica St. Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the pieces are better than others, but overall this is an excellent collection. Personal favorite pieces: "Rick Steves Wants To Set You Free," "My Own Private Iceland," and "What I Learned in Avalanche School."

[Maggie Skarich Joos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turns out when we can’t travel all we do is think about the many ways climate change can kill us. This is an important read but not the selection I was expecting. Change the title and then make it required reading for anyone who says this is a future problem not a now problem.