Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts

Travel Writer, Essayist, Adventurer, Teacher

Rolf Potts

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  • Writing
    • Essays & Travel Stories
    • Dispatches
    • Travel Writer Profiles
    • No Baggage Challenge
    • Vagablogging
  • Books
    • Vagabonding
    • The Vagabond’s Way
    • Souvenir
    • Marco Polo Didn’t Go There
    • The Geto Boys (33 1/3)
    • Audiobooks
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    • Introductions & Forewords
    • The Misadventures of Wenamun (comic)
    • The Henry Ford of Literature (French)
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    • Kansas Never Plays Itself
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Two-Headed Calf, by Laura Gilpin

January 9, 2017
Tomorrow when the farm boys find this
freak of nature, they will wrap his body
in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north
field with his mother. It is a perfect
summer evening: the moon rising over
the orchard, the wind in the grass. And
as he stares into the sky, there are
twice as many stars as usual.


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Category : Poetry
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Books by Rolf

  • Souvenir (Object Lessons) book cover
  • The Geto Boys cover

Podcast: Deviate with Rolf

  • How the experience of long-term travel changes (in good ways) as you get older November 3, 2026
  • Sense of place in cinema: Las Vegas Never Plays Itself, with Tod Goldberg October 6, 2026
  • Travel memoir lab: How your journeys can inspire fictional adventure stories September 7, 2026
  • Best of Travel: Paul Theroux on the necessary obstacles of meaningful journeys August 4, 2026
  • The geography of sports movies (with Chuck Klosterman and Michael Weinreb) July 3, 2026

Recent Blog Posts

  • Travel touches all other aspects of life (because travel is about paying attention) November 5, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Tom Lutz November 1, 2026
  • We could do better at telling stories about how we might live the second half of life October 22, 2026
  • 3 strategies for travel to places that have no iconic tourist attractions October 15, 2026
  • The blessing of fellow travelers who become lifelong friends October 8, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Cassandra Overby October 1, 2026

Travel Writer Interviews

  • Travel Writer: Tom Lutz November 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Cassandra Overby October 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Daniel Scheffler September 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Brendan Shanahan August 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Angie Chuang July 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel June 1, 2026

Books

Vagabonding

Vagabonding

The Vagabond’s Way

The Vagabond’s Way

Souvenir

Tools of Titans

Kansas Matters

The 33 1/3 B-sides

Souvenir

50 Ways of Looking at Nostalgia

Recent Podcasts

How the experience of long-term travel changes (in good ways) as you get older

Sense of place in cinema: Las Vegas Never Plays Itself, with Tod Goldberg

Travel memoir lab: How your journeys can inspire fictional adventure stories

Best of Travel: Paul Theroux on the necessary obstacles of meaningful journeys

The geography of sports movies (with Chuck Klosterman and Michael Weinreb)

Designing a creative life on your own terms (with Cedar Van Tassel)

What movies (do and don’t) show us about places before we travel there

Exploring the idiosyncrasies of male friendship, with Andrew McCarthy

Debunking the mythology of BEFORE SUNRISE, with co-writer Kim Krizan (in Paris)

Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of)

Travel Writers

Travel Writer: Tom Lutz

Travel Writer: Cassandra Overby

Travel Writer: Daniel Scheffler

Travel Writer: Brendan Shanahan

Travel Writer: Angie Chuang

Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel

Travel Writer: Caroline Van Hemert

Travel Writer: Rachel Rudwall

Travel Writer: Erin Levi

Travel Writer: Jen Rose Smith