The Best American Travel Writing 2012

The Best American Series®

First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind.

The Best American Travel Writing 2012 includes

Bryan Curtis, Lynn Freed, J. Malcolm Garcia, Peter Gwin,

Pico Iyer, Mark Jenkins, Dimiter Kenarov, Robin Kirk,

Kimberly Meyer, Paul Theroux, and others

Selected by guest editor William T. Vollmann, this collection explores the unforgettable, the strange, and the profound:
Literary Journalism at its Finest: Join celebrated authors like Paul Theroux and Pico Iyer on journeys to the wicked coast of Maine and the holy city of Varanasi.Edge-of-the-Map Exploration: Descend into Vietnam’s recently discovered "infinite" cave with Mark Jenkins and walk the US-Mexico border with Luke Dittrich.Deep Cultural Dives: From the scribes of Timbuktu and the anti-Mafia movement in Sicily to the surreal Tijuana Sports Hall of Fame, these essays go beyond the headlines.Haunting & Unconventional Travel: Witness the "primeval, teeming, irradiated Eden" of Chernobyl, Cairo’s "Garbage City," and the strange, poignant world of Bulgarian street necrologues.