Elaine Glusac is a Chicago-based freelance writer who specializes in travel. She’s a regular contributor to the New York Times travel section and writes frequently for AFAR, the Chicago Tribune, National Geographic Traveler and Virtuoso Life. Her work has also appeared, in Conde Nast Traveler, Departures, Smithsonian.com and the Wall Street Journal. In 2019, she won the gold medal as Travel Journalist of the Year in the Lowell Thomas Awards, where the judges wrote, “Elaine Glusac demonstrates a mastery of every form of travel writing. She caters to the inveterate traveler with practical tips for those who want to follow her footsteps, but her deeply reported and meticulously contextualized pieces also allow armchair travelers to gain an understanding of places they might never visit..”
How did you get started traveling?
I grew up in a family of travelers. My parents had their wedding in a basement so they could save money and take three weeks to drive around New England on their honeymoon. We lived in Detroit, which is just across the Detroit River from Canada, and I think there’s something about growing up on an international border that opens you up to others across dotted lines on maps. As a family, we did a lot of road trips in the U.S. and Canada and my love of travel started by staring out the window, imaging the worlds of the towns we’d pass and the secret lives of the residents. Of course, it has spiraled outward from there, but I still get my best ideas on road trips.
How did you get started writing?
I was always the creative kid and diarist. I was known for perpetually asking questions and writing was my biggest academic strength but I didn’t really think about turning those skills into a profession. After undergrad, I got a job in a bank writing trainee manuals. I hated the topic but loved writing for a living. I bided my time in grad school for a few years – business, with a focus on arts administration — before making a complete break and committing to writing, which meant bartending by night, practicing journalism by day. Freelancing suited my entrepreneurial streak, and I bought my first computer on the proceeds of scalping Cubs baseball tickets at Wrigley Field.
What do you consider your first “break” as a writer?
I had moved to Chicago and everything about the city was new and exciting. Having lived in Italy in college, I spoke Italian and started visiting an Italian neighborhood in Chicago where I found a group of teenagers playing an Italian version of rock, paper, scissors with so much bravado that spectators would gather around them. This slice-of-life story was my first sale to an alternative weekly in town and confirmation that there are stories everywhere, even in your own backyard.
As a traveler and fact/story gatherer, what is your biggest challenge on the road?
Life/work balance has always been a challenge for me. Before I had a child, I worked 60 hours a week. After having a child, I cut back the hours and doubled the intensity. I couldn’t be as spontaneous in terms of travel and do right by my family. This forced me to be more selective in the stories I pursue, which I now see as a very good thing for work and for family. By being more committed to those trips I do take, I feel my stories have only been stronger.
What is your biggest challenge in the research and writing process?
In terms of research, it’s making the best use of my time in the field. Budgets are such that you have to use your time effectively, and the only way to do that is to research as much as possible in advance of a trip. I usually create a thorough itinerary for myself, then deviate once I’m on the road reality-testing everything and gaining tips on site.
In terms of writing, it’s writer’s block at the start. I can sometimes freeze when facing a blank screen. I have learned to just blurt out everything that comes to mind, no matter how bad, and then shape it up in the editing. Research also helps me get over this hurdle. There’s always one more person to query, one more Google search to make, one more study to review. I have found excessive research makes it loads easier to write because you have so much to say and only so much space to say it in.
What is your biggest challenge from a business standpoint?
Journalism markets are shrinking, which makes it harder to sell your work. That’s true if you’re any kind of writer, including a travel writer. The decline of print has, of course, opened up new avenues online and arguably there are more outlets for digital publishing. But, so far, the money hasn’t followed and where it has, the rates are lower. That’s a problem for all professional writers.
Have you ever done other work to make ends meet?
Other than starting out my career in the 1990’s as a bartender, much to the dismay of my father, no. And 99 percent of my writing has been editorial. I had a marketing client many years ago who used to pay me to watch European TV ads for shampoo and critique them. Strange job, but lucrative. That was my 1 percent.
What travel authors or books might you recommend and/or have influenced you?
This is going way back, but my parents have always been New York Times subscribers, and I remember reading travel stories by R.W. Apple Jr., who passed away in 2006, and thinking I wanted to be able to bring places to life the way he did — through vivid imagery and lots of conversations with people, to be factually accurate, insightful and tell a great story at the same time.
I find reading fiction most inspirational in terms of language play and I’m partial to reading authors who capture a sense of place, from Somerset Maugham to Lauren Groff. Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac was probably the first book that compelled me to visit its setting (Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where I’ve subsequently been many times). As a history major, I also love creative non-fiction; shout out to Susan Orlean, Laura Hillenbrand, Isabel Wilkerson, John McPhee.
There are so many amazing travel writers, including Jan Morris, Bill Bryson, Frances Mayes, Tony Perrottet, yourself, Rolf Potts, and loads more I’m forgetting. They remind me to be bold.
What advice and/or warnings would you give to someone who is considering going into travel writing?
First, read a lot. That’s instructional. Then report a lot. You can never over-report, though it’s easy to fall into the trap of under-reporting. Much travel writing is guilty of under-reporting and relying on first-person narratives, which can quickly lose a reader’s attention. Good reporting requires developing good listening skills.
I would also counsel anyone interested in travel writing to learn video and podcasting skills. Storytelling will never die, but its delivery is expanding into other engaging mediums.
The only caution is to ask yourself how hard you’re willing to work. Writing well is tear-your-hair-out hard, and I think you have to be compelled to do it.
What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?
I have the license to ask questions and satisfy my native curiosity every day. I become an expert in a topic several times a week. I can’t think of a better job than being paid to learn and pass it on. The world is rich, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to explore it.
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