The Best American Travel Writing 2012
*Starred Review* Bold and questing writer and world traveler Vollmann is at the helm of the thirteenth edition of this superb travel annual, which has always been distinguished by its stellar guest editors. Guided by his unceasing curiosity about complex places and authentic voices, Vollmann has chosen 19 electrifying essays originally published in the Believer, Ecotone, Virginia Quarterly Review, and even a travel zine as well as such perennial sources as Harper’s and National Geographic. Reaching from Timbuktu to Vietnam to Bulgaria, the collection begins with Monte Reel’s immersion in Victorian “how-to-explore books,” a revelatory genre meant to teach “the acquired art of paying attention,” which is practiced to perfection by each contributor. Henry Shukman’s riveting account of his “atomic safari” in Chernobyl feels like a postapocalyptic sf novel. Iraq veteran and journalist Elliott D. Woods charts the volatile dynamics of Cairo’s Garbage City. Thomas Swick profiles Sicilians who are courageously standing up to the Mafia, while Robin Kirk reports on “dark tourism” in Belfast. Closer to home, Kimberly Meyer visits the “rusty red granite replica of ancient Jerusalem” in Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains, and Luke Dittrich walks the U.S.-Mexico border. Vollmann’s “best” assemblage profoundly extends the reach of the ever-vital and enlightening art of travel writing. --Donna Seaman