Tania Romanov is the author of four memoirs and a travel collection. Her travel writing has also been anthologized in The Best Travel Writing, The Best Women’s Travel Writing, and elsewhere. Tania is the recipient of multiple Solas Awards for travel writing, as well as a Northern California Publishers and Authors Book Award for memoir. Born in the former Yugoslavia, she spent her childhood in a refugee camp in Italy, before emigrating to the United States, where she grew up in San Francisco’s Russian community. A graduate of San Francisco public schools, she went on to serve as CEO of three technology companies.
How did you get started traveling?
I hang from the final limb of a family tree of generations of unintentional travelers—exiles, refugees, displaced people. My own lifetime of travel began through no choice of my own. As a very young girl, I was forced to flee my native Serbia, spending much of my childhood in a refugee camp in what is today Trieste, Italy. My family’s departure from that camp meant more travel, this time on a boat through the Mediterranean and across the Pacific, followed by a bus ride from New York City to San Francisco. I haven’t stopped traveling since.
How did you get started writing?
As I explain in my book, I Will Be the Woman He Loved, when my husband Harold died after a long battle with cancer, I had to not only grieve but also figure out how to move forward. Who would I become and what would my life look like once he and so much of what had defined my life was gone?
Having flirted with writing earlier in my life, I returned to it when I took a two-week walk along the Thames Path in England to process my loss and envision what was next. That initial writing led to classes and writing groups and my ongoing incarnation as a writer.
What do you consider your first “break” as a writer?
My first break was probably when I had an essay simultaneously accepted by not only Best Women’s Travel Writing but also Best Travel Writing. It was an honor and thrill to have the piece accepted by both, but it was somewhat awkward to find myself in the difficult position of having to choose one publication over the other.
As a traveler and fact/story gatherer, what is your biggest challenge on the road?
I can sometimes get so caught up in the moment—in the places and people and experiences—that it’s hard to make note of details that, at the time, might seem mundane, but in retrospect prove intriguing and useful. Writing every day helps with capturing those details, but the excitement and fatigue of full days on the road can sometimes distract from the discipline required to maintain a daily practice.
What is your biggest challenge in the research and writing process?
One of the biggest challenges is including not only the descriptive narrative of the travel itself but also its emotional impact. The perfectionist and analyst in me can sometimes be tempted to overly intellectualize or conceptualize a story. Likewise, when a particular trip has been full of inspired experiences, choosing which to share or finding the thread that ties them together can sometimes be a welcome challenge.
What is your biggest challenge from a business standpoint?
If you think finding love is hard, it’s nothing compared to trying to make a living as a travel writer! I would only recommend it as a full-time pursuit to people with extreme courage and patience, people prepared to deal with long waits and a lot of rejection. I’m glad that I waited until after my business career to get into travel writing, so that I can pursue it more as a passion versus a profession on which my livelihood depends.
Have you ever done other work to make ends meet?
My first job was in a delicatessen—I still have my San Francisco Butchers Union card! But my career was in tech, acting in many different roles, until eventually serving as CEO of three companies
What travel authors or books might you recommend and/or have influenced you?
In my teens I became obsessed with the Himalayas thanks to Dervla Murphy, a woman whose courage and persistence I admired from the moment I opened her first book, Full Tilt. Reading about her solo bike ride from London to Delhi in the 1960s made the Himalayas come alive for me—and made me want to undertake similar journeys.
Another big influence was Jan Morris’s Trieste And The Meaning Of Nowhere. As mentioned above, I spent much of my childhood in a refugee camp in Trieste. Reading Jan’s account of her experiences there made me see the city for the first time as an adult, prompting my overdue return and an ongoing love affair with that very special place.
Other authors who have had an impact include Rebecca West, Paul Theroux, V.S. Naipaul, Freya Stark, and Eric Newby.
What advice and/or warnings would you give to someone who is considering going into travel writing?
Talk to strangers. Study and improve your craft. Build a community of fellow writers.
What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?
Travel writing isn’t simply about exploring and sharing the world. It’s about learning about ourselves, the people we encounter on the road, and how we’re all related.
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