Traveling Souls: Contemporary Pilgrimage Stories

by Brian Bouldrey (Editor)

from the Foreword by Pico Iver
"Reading the wonderfully varied and unexpected stories assembled here, I was struck by how much the notion of pilgrimage today has to do with retrieving a sense of purpose (and simplicity, and constancy); with putting oneself, quite literally, in the footsteps of the past. Once upon a less secular time, almost everyone made pilgrimages, and most of the great works of our early literature--Dante's ascent into the stars, Chaucer's wanderers to Canterbury, the tales of Orpheus and Odysseus and Hercules--commemorate both inward and outward journeys; these days, I suspect, many of us travel in part to experience pilgrimage by proxy. Most of the travelers in this volume leave home, as I have done, to partake of someone else's pilgrimage, and so to learn what animates people to undertake such sacrificial tasks; the destination of pilgrimage is pilgrimage itself." Table of Contents

Pico Iyer Foreword
Brian Bouldrey Preface

Abigail Seymour, "Ultreya"
Malcolm X, "Mecca"
Alice Walker, "Looking for Zora"
Alane Salierno Mason, "Holy City"
Marvin Barrett, "Climbing to Christmas"
Rachel Kadish, "Reparation Spoken Here?"
Gretel Ehrlich, "The Road to Emei Shan"
John Hanson Mitchell, "Providence Hill"
Barbara Wilson , "Joshua Tree"
Michael Wolfe, "When Men and Mountains Meet"
Satish Kumar, "Iona"
Anne Cushman, "Spiritual Discomfort"
Oliver Statler, "Japanese Pilgrimage"
Jennifer Lash, "Lourdes"
Gary Paul Nabhan, "La Verna's Wounds"

Genres: Spirituality, Travel

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1999

About the author

Brian Bouldrey, is the author of the nonfiction books Honorable Bandit: A Walk Across Corsica (University of Wisconsin Press, September, 2007), Monster: Adventures in American Machismo (Council Oak Books), and T he Autobiography Box (Chronicle Books); three novels, The Genius of Desire (Ballantine), Love, the Magician (Harrington Park), and The Boom Economy (University of Wisconsin Press ; and editor of several anthologies. He is recipient of Fellowships from Yaddo and Eastern Frontier Society, and the Joseph Henry Jackson Award from the San Francisco Foundation, a Lambda Literary Award, and the Western Regional Magazine Award. Teaches fiction and creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and Lesley College MFA Program for Writers.

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many books on the topic of pilgrimage. This one is so interesting because it includes the perspectives of people searching for meaning across many cultures and places. The contemporary pilgrim looks different but the the stories are fascinating.

[Cate (Kate) Caruso · Rating 2 out of 5]

Checked this book out because the forward is written by Pico Iyer, whom I knew of, but not that much about. It seems he is the "guru of travel woo woo"....(to borrow and paraphrase from Margaret Roach brilliant garden blogger)....anyway, Iyer is fast becoming my favorite writer on travel and the deeper meanings of the life of a traveler. The forward is worth every moment of reading and reflection. If I don't even read the rest of the book just this bit will have been worth it. It turns out that the forward was the best part of this book.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really diverse and engaging collection. Includes an incredible piece by Malcolm X on traveling to Mecca and a short piece on the Camino de Santiago by Abigail Seymour. Definitely worth reading for travelers and pilgrims alike.

[Cherie · Rating 1 out of 5]

D I skimmed much of it, and most of it was self-indulgent and not worth reading.

[Carmen like the opera · Rating 5 out of 5]

The variety of writers and voices is what makes you continue to turn the page.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

for my upcoming pilgrimage to costa rica rainforests in spring.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of piligrmage essays was great to read while I was in Transylvania.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for the soul. Tales of pilgrimages holy and otherwise.