2012 Faculty (Travel Writers & Photographers Conference)

2012 Faculty - Susan Orlean, Andrew McCarthy, Spud Hilton, Pauline Frommer and many more!

Jim Benning
Travel writer and editor. Benning is cofounder and coeditor of the online travel magazine and blog World Hum. His writing has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Outside, Playboy, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Online Journalism Review and Public Radio International. His essay "Lust in Translation" was shortlisted in The Best American Travel Writing anthology. World Hum won the gold Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers for best internet travel site, and in 2010, along with NPR, the BBC and Vanity Fair, it was named a Webby Honoree in the writing category. Read more >>

Cara Black
Black frequents a Paris little known outside the beaten tourist track, a Paris she discovers on research trips and interviews with French police, private detectives and café owners. Cara is a San Francisco Library Laureate and a member of the Paris Sociéte Historique in the Marais. Her nationally bestselling and award nominated Aimée Leduc Investigation series, which includes Murder in the Latin Quarter, Murder in the Marais, and Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, a bookseller, and their teenage son. Read more >>

Kimberley Cameron
Literary agent and President of Kimberley Cameron and Associates. Cameron has been successful with many different genres, and especially loves the thrill of securing representation for debut authors. She represents both fiction and nonfiction manuscripts. Read more >>

Julia Cosgrove
Julia joined AFAR Media as executive editor in 2008, and was promoted to editor in chief in 2011. She last served as deputy editor of the DIY design magazine ReadyMade. During her tenure, the magazine was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in general excellence. Before making stuff at ReadyMade, Julia was part of the original launch team behind Time Out New York Kids, a spinoff of Time Out New York. She started her career as a writer at Business Week and the New York Daily News. Read more >>

Phil Cousineau
Award-winning writer and filmmaker, teacher and editor, lecturer and travel leader, storyteller and TV host. His fascination with the art, literature, and history of culture has taken him from Michigan to Marrakesh, Iceland to the Amazon, in a worldwide search for what the ancients called the "soul of the world." With more than 25 books and 15 scriptwriting credits to his name, the "omnipresent influence of myth in modern life" is a thread that runs through all of his work. His books include Stoking the Creative Fires, Once and Future Myths, The Art of Pilgrimage, The Olympic Odyssey, The Hero's Journey, and Wordcatcher. Read more >>

Andrew Evans
Andrew Evans is National Geographic's "digital nomad"—always traveling and always wired. You can share in the adventure as he explores great destinations around the globe. Follow him wherever he goes on Twitter: @WheresAndrew. He is the author of travel guides Bradt's Iceland, Ukraine and more. Read more >>

David Farley
Author of An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town and the coeditor of Travelers' Tales Prague and Czech Republic: True Stories. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Conde Nast Traveler, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, National Geographic Traveler, New York, and Slate.com. Read more >>

Chris Gray Faust
Former travel editor at USA TODAY. Her blog, Chris Around The World, was named one of the "top 10 travel blogs to bookmark in 2010" by syndicated travel columnist Christopher Elliott, and has become a major source of travel information for sophisticated professionals looking for boutique or luxury travel experiences. A journalist for 20 years, Chris has worked as a reporter and editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the York (Pa.) Daily Record. Read more >>

Pauline Frommer
Internationally syndicated travel expert, penning a weekly newspaper column and co-hosting The Travel Show with her father Arthur. The latter is the only call-in radio show on travel in the US and is now heard every weekend on over 130 stations nationwide. She is the founder of the award-winning Pauline Frommer travel guides (14 in the series), and her writing has appeared in numerous and varied publication from Budget Travel Magazine, to Nick Jr to Weight Watchers.  She was the founding editor of Frommers.com, and also served for three years as the travel editor for MSNBC.com. Pauline has also appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The O'Reilly Factor, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NPR's Talk of the Nation and every local news station you can name. Read more >>

Don George
Author of Travel Writing and the editor of eight anthologies, including Moveable Feast and The Kindness of Strangers. He writes the monthly Trip Lit column for National Geographic Traveler and is Features Editor for Gadling.com. He also edits Geographic Expeditions’ online magazine, Recce: Literary Journeys for the Discerning Traveler. Read more >>

Peter Greenberg
Travel editor for CBS News, and appears on The Early Show and CBS Evening News. A New York Times bestselling author, travel expert, Chief Contributing Editor for Michelin Travel, and contributing editor to Men’s Health, Peter lives in New York and Los Angeles. He has been a featured guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Larry King Live. His forthcoming book is The Best Places for Everything. It is an all-access pass to the most unique, inspiring, and life-changing experiences on Earth.  Read more >>

Larry Habegger
Travel writer, editor, journalist, and teacher who has been covering the world since his international travels began in the 1970s. As a freelance writer for more than 30 years and syndicated columnist since 1985, his work has appeared in many major newspapers and magazines, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Travel & Leisure, and Outside. In 1993 he cofounded the award-winning Travelers' Tales books with James and Tim O'Reilly and is currently executive editor. Read more >>

Georgia Hesse
Founding travel editor of the San Francisco Examiner and held that position on the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle for 20 years. She has contributed to several anthologies, is a co-author of travel guides to France and California published by Fisher and by Berlitz, and teaches travel writing and related courses.

Spud Hilton
Travel Editor of The San Francisco Chronicle and writer for the travel section’s blog, Bad Latitude. He is a 20-year journalist and traveler who has written about, reported on, and been hopelessly lost on five continents. His attempts to defy the expectations of places—from Havana’s back alleys to Genoa’s cathedrals to the floor of a hippie bus in Modesto—have earned him three Lowell Thomas Awards. His stories have appeared in more than 60 newspapers in North America. He lives with his wife, Ann, in San Francisco and plays cornet in an early New Orleans-style jazz band. Read more >>

Robert Holmes
Award-winning photographer working for National Geographic, Geo, Saveur, Wine Spectator and many other major magazines and international corporations. Robert is a three-time winner of Travel Photographer of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers, and author of many lush food and wine books. Read more >>

Dianne Jacob
Author of Will Write for Food. Jacob judges books and journalism for two national associations, the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Read more >>

Andrea Johnson
Award-winning photographer and video producer serving the wine, food & drink, adventure and travel industries. Over the last decade, she has created a compelling body of work for corporate, advertising, editorial, and fine art clients around the globe. Her photographs regularly appear in  publications including Wine Spectator, Food and Wine,  Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Additionally, Andrea has photographed three books: Passion for Pinot (2008), Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest (2010), and Spectacular Wineries of Washington (2012). Read more >>

Shelley Lindgren
Wine Director/Owner for SPQR in San Francisco; her reputation for seeking out Italian wines made with lesser-known grapes has earned her recognition as a wine pioneer. In 2004, along with SPQR owner Victoria Libin, and chef Christophe Hille they formed the team that opened A16, a restaurant inspired by the cooking of Campania with an emphasis on Neopolitan pizza and Southern Italian wines. Shelley's first book, A16 Food + Wine, was awarded Cookbook of the Year and First Book/The Julia Child Award at the prestigious 2009 IACP Cookbook Awards. Read more >>

Pam Mandel
Contributor to Conde Nast Traveler, Afar, World Hum, Gadling, BlogHer, and Divine Caroline, been featured on National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel blog and Perceptive Travel blog, and written for a handful of food, travel, and in-flight magazines. Pam has also recorded stories for NPR’s WGBH Boston station, spoken about Hawaii and Antarctica for This Arctic Life out of Anchorage, and she's been a repeat guest on the This Week in Travel podcast. Pam has worked on two guidebooks—British Columbia and Hawaii—for Thomas Cook. Read more >>

Oksana Marafioti
Marafioti moved to the U.S. from the Soviet Union when she was 15 years old. Trained as a classical pianist, she has also worked as a cinematographer. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and is the author of American Gypsy, a memoir of a Romani (Gypsy) childhood, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in July, 2012. Her short fiction has appeared in various anthologies.

Andrew McCarthy
Actor, director, and travel writer and a two-time Lowell Thomas Award winner, including being named the SATW Foundation 2010 Travel Journalist of the Year. Andrew has twice been cited for “notable” work in the Best American Travel series, and is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler. His travel writing has also appeared in Travel+Leisure, Afar, Men’s Journal, Islands, National Geographic Adventure. Read more >>

Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Poet, travel writer, novelist and workshop leader and a contributor to numerous journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies and online publications including the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, Travelers’ Tales, and Salon.com. She is the author of two poetry collections and the novel and graphic novel Dead Love. Linda founded the Bay Area wrters salon Left Coast Writers. Read more >>

Andy Murdock
Lonely Planet’s US Digital Editor. He serves as the managing editor for LonelyPlanet.com and the company's social media channels for the Americas. Andy has a Ph.D. in Biology from UC Berkeley, where he strategically studied a group of plants found only in beautiful and far-flung regions of the world and ended up finding the world more interesting than the plants. Beyond writing and editing for LonelyPlanet.com, Andy’s writing has appeared around the web on CNN.com, WashingtonPost.com, MSNBC.com, Today.com, BBC Travel, Gadling, Huffington Post, and more. Read more >>

Susan Orlean
Journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker. Her books include The Orchid Thief, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People, My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. She has contributed articles to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside. Orlean lives in Columbia County, New York (with occasional stints in Los Angeles and in New York City) with her husband, her son, dog, and two chickens. Read more >>

Jeff Pflueger
Professional outdoor and travel photographer. Jeff's assignments have taken him all over the world. He produces visual representations of the world for organizations such as the New York Times, National Geographic and many others. Read more >>

Amy Rennert
Literary agent at The Amy Rennert Agency. Amy has spent more than 20 years in the publishing business, pursuing her passion for the written word. The agency represents a select group of quality fiction and nonfiction writers—many of them award-winners—and dozens of agency books have been New York Times and national bestsellers. Read more >>

Andy Ross
Andy opened the Andy Ross Agency in 2008. Prior to that, he was the owner for 30 years of the legendary Cody's Books in Berkeley. The Andy Ross Agency represents books in a  wide range of subjects including: narrative nonfiction, science, journalism, history, religion, children's books, young adult, middle grade, literary and commercial fiction, and cooking. For literary, commercial, and children's fiction, Ross only has one requirement—simple, but ineffable— that the writing reveal the terrain of that vast and unexplored country, the human heart. Andy is a member of the Association of Author Representatives (AAR). Read more >>

Peter Schaf
Absinthe expert and owner of Tempus Fugit Spirits and Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe. He is one of the most influential behind-the-scenes players in the modern absinthe renaissance. He is a self-taught absinthe historian. Read more >>

Stuart Schwartz
San Francisco based photographer specializing in people photography for advertising and corporate clients. With many years of experience living and working in Europe, Stuart brings with him a very open approach to his assignments. His knowledge of the international market place help Stuart create powerful branding images for his clients. Read more >>

Michael Shapiro
Writer, photographer and interviewer who specializes in travel. He’s the author of A Sense of Place and works as an editor at The Press Democrat, a New York Times-owned newspaper in Santa Rosa, Calififornia. Michael’s story about rafting through the Grand Canyon in the wake of John Wesley Powell’s first descent is in The Best Travel Writing 2011. He contributed the text to Guatemala: A Journey Through the Land of the Maya a pictorial book with luminous images by Kraig Lieb, a photographer for Lonely Planet. Read more >>

Julia Flynn Siler
Author and journalist. She wrote the New York Times bestseller, The House of Mondavi. Her next book, Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure, hit the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list soon after being published by Atlantic Monthly Press in early 2012. As a veteran correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek magazine, Julia spent more than two decades in the Europe and the United States, reporting from a dozen countries. She has covered fields as varied as biotechnology, cult wines, and a princess’s quest to restore a Hawaiian palace’s lost treasures. Read more >>

John Troia
Owner and cofounder of Tempus Fugit Spirits, and a leading expert on absinthe and has been directly involved in bringing the best, award-winning absinthe to the U.S. market. Read more >>