Travel Writer: Stephanie Pearson

Stephanie Pearson is a freelance writer and contributing editor to Outside magazine. Stephanie grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and has lived in Chicago, Santa Fe, Quito, and Bogota. During her 13-years on staff at Outside Stephanie wrote “The Wild File,” a column about science and nature, and numerous features, three of which received honorable mentions in The Best American Travel Writing series.

Travel Writer: Ben Box

Ben Box has written and edited a number of Latin American and Caribbean travel guidebooks for Footprints, including the legendary South American Handbook. He has contributed to newspapers, journals and scholarly books — usually on the subject of travel, but also on South American literature. Born in England, his outside interests include village cricket and gardening.

Travel Writer: Catherine Watson

Catherine Watson, a pioneer in narrative travel writing for newspapers, was the first travel editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and its chief travel columnist from 1978 to 2004. Her books, Roads Less Traveled: Dispatches From the Ends of the Earth (Syren Book Company, 2005) and Home on the Road: Further Dispatches from the Ends of the Earth (Syren, 2007), both won awards from the Society of American Travel Writers.

Travel Writer: Matt Gross

Matt Gross was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and raised everywhere from Brighton, England, to Williamsburg, Virginia. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 1996, he moved to Vietnam, then found his way into the media business in New York. He now writes the Frugal Traveler column for the New York Times travel section.

Travel Writer: Arthur Frommer

Arthur Frommer, one of America’s foremost travel authorities, is the founder of the Frommer’s guidebook series. In addition to authoring and publishing guidebooks, he also presents a weekly radio program on travel, and writes a column on travel that appears in major newspapers ranging from the New York Daily News to the Chicago Tribune to the Los Angeles Times. He lives in New York City.