Friends and vagabonders,
Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been working on of late — including my Deviate with Rolf Potts podcast; my new book, Souvenir; and upcoming creative writing classes in Paris and Santa Fe.
Podcast: Deviate with Rolf Potts
Deviate, which debuted last November (and has since surpassed a quarter of a million downloads), features engaging, off-topic conversations with a wide range of experts, public figures, and interesting people — including bestselling author Tim Ferriss, Netflix comedian Ari Shaffir, and Everest mountaineer Alison Levine.
An index of episodes, with links to show notes, can be found at the show’s RolfPotts.com archive. Please consider subscribing via iTunes, Stitcher, or other podcast aggregators.
Note that while I talked about travel with the likes of Levine, Shaffir, Tim Cahill, and Kevin Kelly, most of the episodes aren’t travel-themed — and include wide-ranging conversations with police officers, retired dominatrices, and Hollywood film-score composers.
Some episodes offer deep-dives into topics like death and dying in America, the challenges of education in the 21st century, and why we should reconsider the way we grow food.
Other episodes explore the most intriguing forgotten rock albums of the 1980s, the history of the Star-Spangled Banner as a protest song, and the bygone joys of the Sears Christmas Wish book. One episode investigates the most peculiar high school basketball game of the 20th century.
Thus far the most popular Season One episode has been “Comedian Ari Shaffir on ‘shrooms, hugging, and quitting smartphones,” a rambling, hilarious conversation that plays out over the course of a two-hour road trip through Los Angeles.
New Book: Souvenir (Object Lessons)
My newest book, Souvenir, debuted in March as a part of Bloomsbury’s “Object Lessons” series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
The book blends reportage, memoir, anthropology, and cultural criticism to explore the 4000-year history of travel souvenirs, and the surprising ways we use them to narrate our lives. The Los Angeles Review of Books called Souvenir “a delightfully discursive and inquisitive account that seeks the source of our collective need to collect things”; the San Francisco Book Review called it “a fascinating journey that covers a lot of ground”; and Forbes called it “a little gem packed with big insights.”
Literary Hub featured the book’s intro chapter, and in-depth interviews about the book have appeared in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Ethical Traveler podcast, Pitch Weekly, and the New York Times.
Please ask after the book at your local bookstore, or check out the online buying options I’ve posted at RolfPotts.com (and of course I always welcome friendly reviews at places like Amazon and Goodreads).
Writing classes in Paris (and Santa Fe)
Last-minute slots are still available for the creative writing workshop I teach each July.
In addition to taking classes and workshops in Paris, students will receive one-on-one consultations with teachers, attend literary presentations, and give readings in Parisian venues. Between classes and tutorials, there will be ample time to experience the city, visit museums, take day-trips to the countryside, read books, hang out in cafes, dance by the Seine, and make friends from around the world.
If you can’t spare a month in Paris, I am also teaching “Travel Writing as Memoir,” a four-day intensive travel-writing class at the Santa Fe Writers Lab, from September 17-20, 2018.
I’ll also be giving at keynote at TravelCon 2018 in Austin on September 22. For updated information on my various classes and public appearances, check out my Events page.
On a final note, please bookmark the RolfPotts.com blog, which, in addition to showcasing podcast episodes and essays like “Why Travel Writing Matters,” has all manner of writing-craft advice — not just from literary luminaries like Joan Didion, John Steinbeck, and August Wilson (and author/podcaster Tim Ferriss), but also story-craft features inspired by TV shows like Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.
Happy vagabonding, everyone!
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