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Today I was notified by the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) that my latest book, Travel as a Political Act, won their Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism award for the best travel book of 2010.
While I’m not a member of the SATW, I have huge respect for this organization and am honored that they appreciate the spirit of TAPA. There were 1,161 entries in 27 categories, and of all the travel books out there, I’m thrilled that Travel as a Political Act was singled out for this recognition.
Looking back, I realize that I gave my Travel as a Political Act talk as a keynote address to the SATW convention six or eight years ago, and the enthusiastic reception it received stoked my interest in actually writing the book. And now, with this award, it is gratifying to get this further encouragement from SATW to explore and report on ways travel makes us all better citizens of our planet and how we can celebrate rather than fear diversity.
In the spirit of this book’s message, I will donate the award money to Bread for the World (the same nonprofit organization that receives all of my royalties for TAPA). I value Bread for the World for its tireless lobbying on behalf of poor and hungry people around the world.
The award announcement was made today in Leipzig, Germany, at the 26th annual Society of American Travel Writers conference. The award, which is like the Pulitzer Prize for travel journalism, is open to all North American journalists and judged by top US schools of journalism. Our Iran TV documentary and related materials on the radio, web, and in print won last year for multimedia travel journalism. For both awards, I want to acknowledge that I have a team of talented and dedicated people on my staff helping me.
Lots of friends in the field of travel journalism were honored in different categories. For a review of today’s awards in each field, click here.
While some think it’s inappropriate for a travel journalist to speak out on matters political, I’ll take this award as an affirmation from my peers. I believe that challenging our readers to learn from their travels and to be better citizens of our planet is precisely what travel writers do.
(It would be inconsiderate for me not to mention that TAPA just happens to be on sale on our website this month for $5 rather than $17. This is related to a campaign we waged to encourage Californians to consider Europe’s drug policies. This is a giveaway deal and it’s open to all.)