Travel Writing Workshop

September 12, 2015
1–5pm • $95/person •  limited to 10 participants
1650 Jackson Street, San Francisco

Instructor: Camille Cusumano, award-winning travel writer since the 1980s and
former food & travel editor at VIA Magazine.
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“Travel writing is one of the oldest forms of literary endeavors.”
Everybody travels today and many write long engaging emails about their trips. They may be good writers but what makes for good publishable travel writing, why and how, and where does one publish what type of travel story?

In this workshop we answer those questions and more:
• Six basic elements of a good travel story
• What makes a story stand above the crowds’?
• How has the market for travel story changed (think “crowd sourcing”)?
• The various types of travel pieces
• Ten markets that want to buy your stellar travel piece
• How to craft a travel story for a specific market
• How to overcome inertia (esp. when you know you have a great story)
• How to write to word count—all important for a publishable travel piece
• When a short piece is better than long
• How to repurpose one trip
• How recent does a trip have to be to write about it?
• Will travel editors cover your expenses (don’t get your hopes up)?
• When to write the query first—and how
• How to do your homework (research, factchecking, proofreading)
• What about photos? When do images help sell the piece?

Bring preferred writing materials (wifi is available) and any travel story you are working on or wish to get started. Participants will write and have 10-minutes private one-on-one time with the instructor as well as follow-up consultation by email.

Camille Cusumano has taught writing workshops in Buenos Aires and San Francisco. She has published hundreds of travel stories, short and long. She has written for numerous publications, including National Geographic Traveler, Islands, Country Living, the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Her travel memoir, Tango, an Argentine Love Story, was published in 2008 by Seal Press. She is the author of several cookbooks and one novel, The Last Cannoli (Legas) and the editor of the literary travel anthologies, France, a Love Story, Italy, a Love Story, Mexico, a Love Story, and Greece, a Love Story, (Seal Press). She was a senior editor at VIA Magazine in San Francisco until  2005, where she covered  travel out west and around the world. She has coached and edited many writers.