Going abroad for love, and travel writing that says something new about a place

Deviate with Rolf Potts

“When asked to give advice to young people looking to become travel writers, I invariably tell them to go – alone – and live in a country where they don’t speak the language.” –Thomas Swick

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Tom talk about the thematic limitations of memoir writing, and the early stages of Tom’s career as a journalist (2:00); his decision to move to Poland for love, and his experiences living in Warsaw around the time of the Solidarity movement (9:30); the task of writing a travel memoir about events that happened decades ago, and how the American news cycles tends to ignore international matters (15:00); the task of getting started in travel writing in the twenty-first century (21:00); and how travel writers have the ability to bring a fresh eye to places that people who live there might miss (26:00).

Thomas Swick (@roostertie) is an author and writer of The Joys of Travel, A Way to See the World, and Unquiet Days. His newest book is Falling into Place: A Story of Love, Poland, and the Making of a Travel Writer.

Notable Links:

• The Vagabond’s Way, by Rolf Potts (book)
• Misery memoir (literary genre focusing on trauma)
• Aix-en-Provence (city in France)
• Alsace (region of eastern France)
• Trenton Times (newspaper in New Jersey)
• Watergate (political scandal)
• David Maraniss (American journalist and author)
• Pope John Paul II (Poland-born Catholic pope)
• Solidarity (Polish anti-authoritarian movement)
• Martial law in Poland (early 1980s reaction to Solidarity)
• Patrick Leigh Fermor (English traveler and author)
• Tim Cahill (American travel and adventure writer)
• Dave Barry (American humorist and author)
• Holiday Magazine (postwar travel magazine)
• Granta (British literary magazine)
• Holidays in Hell, by P.J. O’Rourke (book)
• Colin Thubron (British travel writer)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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