The Course

Finding the Story in the Place: The Travel Story You Have Always Wanted to Write

A travel narrative can evolve from many different sources: it can be the tale of a whole journey, a detour, a single evening, a remembered meal, of getting lost or feeling alienated, of being found and feeling liberated. It can be a story of a person you have never forgotten or a city that, somehow, changed you. With the goal of demystifying travel writing, this course will urge the writer to mine their memories and diaries; or to find the meaning in an unfamiliar place close to home; or, if desired, to build out a transformational moment in a recent trip. With “place” front and center, a beautiful travel story can be written about something experienced last week–or thirty years ago. 

The Duration: This course meets over six consecutive Tuesdays from 6-9 pm ET, from March 5 – April 9.

Application window: Apply by February 5th.

The Instructor

Marcia DeSanctis is a journalist, essayist, and author of the 2022 memoir-in-essays A Hard Place to Leave: Stories From a Restless Life and the 2014 New York Times Travel bestseller 100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go. She’s a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure and a contributing writer at Air Mail, and has written for Vogue, Lit Hub, Orion, Tin House, BBC Travel, The New York Times, Lonely Planet, and many other publications. She is the recipient of six Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers, including one for Travel Journalist of the Year. Before becoming a writer, she spent two decades as a broadcast news producer in New York and Paris. (Author photo by @Elena Seibert Photography.)