Bay Area Travel Writers Best of 2008 Awards
Gold: Best Newspaper Travel Article
Accidentally Enjoying Albania, San Francisco Chronicle
“I loved this because of its sense of humor and its lack of purple prose. It was very real and that was refreshing. The story covers what is a ‘new’ country to many travelers and one of tremendous interest politically (many, nay most, travel articles ignore contemporarty politics, no matter how compelling they may be). There’s a refreshingly politically incorrect sense of humor here; one that admits to enjoying such things as ‘Gypsies! Strife! Poverty! I had to visit,’ and ‘But as disasters go, it was a disappointment.’ ”
“Too many travel articles ignore interviews with local movers and shakers. This story takes on no less a person that the mayor of Tirana and gets just below his political skin. Good-on! One of the most important and interesting forms of fine travel writing is the stating of expectation turned to the lesson of an experience. The writer is changed as he discovers the facts have changed. This story is clearly a winner.”
Judges:
Catharine Hamm, Travel Editor, Los Angeles Times
Georgia Hesse, Former Travel Editor, SF Examiner
for more information see: www.batw.org