Congratulations to BATW member Sheree Williams who is among this year’s James Beard Award winners! Sheree is the recipient of the Emerging Voice in Journalism Award for her work as the founder of The Global Food and Drink Initiative which publishes Cuisine Noir and produces the podcast Diaspora Food Stories. Both media platforms champion food, drink and travel stories spanning across the African diaspora.BATW Board member, John Compisi, was recently highlighted in the Reno News & Review. Compisi, among his other wine, food and travel passions, was noted for his wine judging expertise at various northern California wine competitions. If you want to learn more about John or the ‘mystery’ of wine scoring, check out this article.
BATW Board member, John Compisi, was recently highlighted in the Reno News & Review. Compisi, among his other wine, food and travel passions, was noted for his wine judging expertise at various northern California wine competitions. If you want to learn more about John or the ‘mystery’ of wine scoring, check out this article.
Laurie McAndish King recorded a podcast of her interview with NYT bestselling historical fiction author Allison Pataki for The Women’s Eye. Click here for podcasts. While Allison’s book is not a travel book per se, her story about 19th-century activist Margaret Fuller takes place in idyllic Concord and gritty New York as well as several locations in Italy—and Pataki is a master at writing about place.
The two discuss Allison’s research techniques, the use of dialog to bring characters to life, and the line between fiction and reality. Laurie also discovers juicy details like these:
- Margaret Fuller was the inspiration for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter.
- Louisa May Alcott, who lived right up the road, talked to her sunflowers.
- Thoreau ate fish stew with his fingers and made little, tiny shoes for Emerson’s chickens.
Diane Covington-Carter’s essay appeared in the AARP online magazine called “Experience Counts” for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and how her father’s stories of his time in France influenced her life and how she found his French orphan Gilbert. Enjoy!
If you go to her website, you can download the first 3 chapters of her award-winning memoir, Finding Gilbert, A Promise Fulfilled.
Ginny Prior featured the host site of this year’s BATW board retreat, Yountville, in her latest Happy Wanderer travel column in the Bay Area NewsGroup. John Williamson shot the photos for the article. Read how the town’s elected officials rallied to create a network of boutique shops in this wine mecca, by clicking here. Ginny also has an article on hiking the Liechtenstein Trail in the wide-ranging 50-plus publication Ageist. Read it here.