Cynthia Barnes has sampled sambal in Borneo for Endless Vacation, been chased by a bull in Mali for Slate, and joined an archaeological dig for National Geographic. Cynthia’s work also appears in Voyaging, Global Traveler, Humanities, and other national magazines. Her essay “Blame It On Rio” was published in the Travelers’ Tales anthology Whose Panties Are These? She’s at work on her first book, “Blue: Wanders from Arkansas to Timbuktu.”

Tony Horwitz is the author of Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (Henry Holt 2002), Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (Pantheon 1998), Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia (E.P. Dutton 1991) and One For the Road: An Outback Adventure (Random House 1988). He has also been a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and a staff writer for the New Yorker. His awards include a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, and an Overseas Press Club award for coverage of the first Gulf War.

Lawrence Millman is the author of eleven books, and his travel articles have appeared in such magazines as Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, The Atlantic Monthly, Sports Illustrated, and Islands. He has made 30 trips and expeditions to the Arctic and Subarctic, discovered a previously unknown lake in Borneo, and is a Fellow of the Explorers Club. Best of all, perhaps, he has a mountain named after him outside Angmagssalik, East Greenland. When not on the road, Millman lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Eddy L. Harris is the author of four critically acclaimed books, Mississippi Solo: A River Quest, Native Stranger: A Black American’s Journey into the Heart of Africa, South of Haunted Dreams: A Memoir, and Still Life in Harlem: A Memoir, all of which partake of memoir, travelogue, adventure tale, and cultural reportage.

Joanne Miller has been on the road since childhood, traveling with her father while he photographed the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone for National Geographic. She is the author of Moon’s Pennsylvania Handbook, Moon’s Maryland-Delaware Handbook, Moon’s Chesapeake Bay Handbook, and Best Places: Marin.

Clay Hubbs has had a long double career as a college professor and a journalist. In 1977 he combined his two interests to start Transitions Abroad magazine “for people who travel to learn.” The bimonthly magazine and its website focus on the life-changing alternatives to mainstream tourism.

David Downie is a native San Franciscan who moved to Paris in the 1980s and divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food and arts features have appeared in magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Gastronomica,the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle, and the Sunday Times of London. He’s is the author of two thrillers — most recently Paris City of Night — and a dozen nonfiction books.

Karin Muller is the author of three books — Hitchhiking Vietnam : A Woman’s Solo Journey in an Elusive Land, Inca Road: A Woman’s Journey into an Ancient Empire, and Japanland : A Year in Search of Wa — all of which she simultaneously produced as television documentaries for the likes of PBS, MSNBC Explorer, and National Geographic’s global channel. From 1987 to 1990 she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines, and she speaks English, Spanish, German, and Tagalog. She has a blackbelt in both judo and jujistu, and flies hang gliders competitively.

Tom Haines is the staff travel writer at The Boston Globe. During more than a decade as a journalist, Tom has reported on economics, politics and culture in dozens of countries and on five continents. As the Globe‘s travel writer, Tom has covered guns and cricket in Guyana, trumpets and nationalism in Serbia, and Gandhi’s legacy in rural India. In 2005 and 2003, he was named Travel Journalist of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. His story about an Ethiopian village facing famine appeared in the 2004 edition of Best American Travel Writing. A native of Pittsburgh, Tom now lives north of Boston with his wife and two children.

John Flinn writes a weekly column and feature articles for the award-winning San Francisco Chronicle travel section. He’s journeyed on assignment to more than 20 countries, including Bhutan, Cuba, the Cook Islands and Croatia, and written more than 400 travel articles. Prior to his job at the Chronicle, Flinn was a feature writer for the San Francisco Examiner, where he was paid to, among other things, fly with the Blue Angels, climb El Capitan, wrestle a bear and go on a date with Miss America.

Amanda Jones is a writer and photographer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work appears in books, magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Vogue, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, Islands, Brides, Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveller, the London Sunday Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has been published in several travel anthologies including Salon.com’s Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance, and Lonely Planet’s literary anthologies The Kindness of Strangers and By The Seat of My Pants.