The Best American Travel Writing 2011 Read online

SEBASTIAN COPELAND

  Alone Across Greenland. Men's Journal, December/January.

  JOHN D'AGATA

  What Happens There. The Believer, January.

  AVI DAVIS

  Creatures of Other Mould. The Believer, November/December.

  MARCIA DESANCTIS

  Strangers on a Train. New York Times Magazine, July 16.

  BILL DONAHUE

  A Pilgrimage to SkyMall. World Hum, January 26.

  BRIAN T. EDWARDS

  Watching Shrek in Tehran. The Believer, March/April.

  ETHAN EPSTEIN

  Staring at North Korea. Slate, October 7.

  IAN FRAZIER

  On the Prison Highway. The New Yorker, August 30.

  A. A. GILL

  Loch, Stalk, and Burials. Vanity Fair, January.

  AARON GULLEY

  Shaken. Outside, October.

  ERIC HANSEN

  Steamed. Outside, August.

  PETER HESSLER

  Go West. The New Yorker, April 19.

  MANNY HOWARD

  Sauvage Grace. New York Times Magazine, September 26.

  PICO IYER

  Forever Foreign. Smithsonian, June.

  Istanbul, City of the Future. National Geographic Traveler, October.

  Lover's Moon. World Hum, March 15.

  ROWAN JACOBSEN

  Heart of Dark Chocolate. Outside, September.

  The Spill Seekers. Outside, November.

  MARK JENKINS

  The Forgotten Road. National Geographic, May.

  ALDEN JONES

  The Burmese Dream Series. Post Road, vol. 19.

  JOHN LANCASTER

  Pakistan's Heartland Under Threat. National Geographic, July.

  ANTHONY LANE

  Only Mr. God Knows Why. The New Yorker, June 28.

  JESSICA LEVINE

  My Two Weeks as a Fellini Extra. The Southern Review, Fall.

  GREG LINDSAY

  Triumph of the Air Warriors. Condé Nast Traveler, February.

  CHADWICK MATLIN

  30 Airports in 30 Days. Slate, November 12.

  ANDREW MCCARTHY

  L.A. Dreamin'. National Geographic Traveler, November/December.

  EMILY MEEHAN

  The Humanitarian's Dilemma. Slate, June 25.

  JONATHAN MILES

  A Chowhound's Caribbean Cruise. Food and Wine, October.

  SHANE MITCHELL

  Out Islands Bahamas. Travel + Leisure, June.

  J. R. MOEHRINGER

  Winner Take All. Smithsonian, October.

  JOYCE CAROL OATES

  Going Home Again. Smithsonian, March.

  ANN PATCHETT

  As American as Cherry Pie. New York Times Magazine, May 19.

  APRIL RABKIN

  A Visit to the Shrine of Afghanistan's National Hero. Slate, September 9.

  ALEXIS SCHAITKIN

  Living Relics. Ecotone, Spring.

  LIESL SCHILLINGER

  Confessions of a Soukaholic. New York Times Magazine, May 19.

  JOHN SEABROOK

  The Last Babylift. The New Yorker, May 10.

  DAVID SEDARIS

  Standing By. The New Yorker, August 9.

  ELLEN RUPPEL SHELL

  Capsized. New York Times Magazine, January 24.

  ROBIN SHULMAN

  World Cup Travels in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Slate, July 2.

  JEREMY STAHL

  "It's Like a Safari and We're the Zebras." Slate, September 21.

  KAYT SUKEL

  Chet of Arabia. The Atlantic, March.

  THOMAS SWICK

  A Walk Through Old Japan. Smithsonian, October.

  Venice in Three Acts. Afar, September/October.

  PATRICK SYMMES

  The Beautiful and the Dammed. Outside, June.

  Thirty Days as a Cuban. Harper's Magazine, October.

  DAMON TABOR

  If It's Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban. Outside, December.

  HANNAH TENNANT-MOORE

  The Sexual Lives of Sri Lankans. World Hum, December 17.

  GUY TREBAY

  Going Postal. Travel + Leisure, February.

  CALVIN TRILLIN

  No Daily Specials. The New Yorker, November 22.

  Some Like It Hot. Condé Nast Traveler, November.

  JOHN WASHINGTON

  The Local to Mexico City. The Smart Set, October 7.

  JOHN WRAY

  Acquired Taste. New York Times Magazine, February 28.

  Footnotes

  * Several other names have been changed with this same precaution in mind.

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  ***

  * When the Turks began shelling the border—which happened on a Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, family day, hence a paid holiday for the fixer—he roared off to photograph the damage for the newspapers, having declined to invite me. Perhaps he was jealous because I had accepted the interpreter's invitation to picnic with his family beside a river with lovely frogs that quacked like birds, ladies in bright, sparkling, many-layered gauzy skirts, willowlike trees, an ancient cave-cliff tomb dating perhaps to Assyrian times and now brought up-to-date with graffiti, and lamb guts floating in the water like balloons. Shortly after I left Iraq, the fixer was caught in a suicide bombing in downtown Kirkuk. He escaped injury but was attacked afterward by an angry mob who mistook him for a Turkmen and beat him so badly the doctors later thought the metal embedded in his face was shrapnel from the explosion.

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