Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference begins today

Hey Everybody,
The 11th Annual Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference begins today.

I could go on and on about how great this conference is for beginning travel writers, but their description tells it best.

Travelers’ Tales is proud to be a sponsor of this year’s conference and you’ll be able to meet Larry Habegger there in person, as well as many other inspiring travel writers in the community such as the Wild Writing Women’s Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Lynn Ferrin.

Don’t worry if you missed registration this year because their evening travel events are open to the public. Here’s who’ll be speaking the next three nights:

From the BP.com website:
* Simon Winchester
Thurs., Aug. 15, 8:00 pm
In conversation with Don George
Simon Winchester’s books include The River at the Center of the World, about China’s Yangtze River; the best-selling The Professor and the Madman, which is to be made into a major film by the distinguished French director Luc Besson; The Fracture Zone: A Return to the Balkans, which recounts his journey from Austria to Turkey during the 1999 Kosovo crisis; and his bestseller The Map that Changed the World, about the nineteenth century geologist William Smith. Don George is the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet Publications.

* Isabel Allende
Fri., Aug. 16, 8:00 pm
In conversation with Don George
Isabel Allende discusses how reading and travel have shaped her as a writer. Allende is the internationally acclaimed author of Portrait in Sepia, House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune, The Infinite Plan, Aphrodite, and Paula. Don George is the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet Publications and the editor of A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad, Salon.com’s Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance, and Travelers’ Tales: Japan.

* Robert Holmes and David Cohen
Sat., Aug. 17, 8:00 pm
Robert Holmes and David Elliot Cohen show slides and discuss travel photography. Robert Holmes is a two-time winner of the coveted Travel Photographer of the Year Award from the Society of American Travel Writers. Holmes’ work appears in numerous books, magazines, and newspapers. David Elliot Cohen’s books, including A Day in the Life of America and One Year Off have sold more than 3 million copies. Cohen’s latest book, A Day in the Life of Africa will be published this fall.

Sadly, the chances of me being there are very slim. I’m in the home stretch of turning in the women’s humor manuscript and can’t do anything until I finish. Have fun for me, and send me an email to give me the inside scoop of who you networked with. jen@jenleo.com