Padma Lakshmi - The Best American Travel Writing 2021

Copyright 2021 by HarperCollins Publishers LLC

Introduction copyright 2021 by Padma Lakshmi

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Cover image Alexander Spatari / Getty

Lakshmi photograph Inez & Vindooh

ISSN 1530-1516 (print) ISSN 2537-4830 (e-book)

ISBN 978-0-358-36131-2 (print) ISBN 978-0-358-36184-8 (e-book)

v2.0921

Wanderlust by Jon Lee Anderson. First published in The New Yorker, August 17, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Jon Lee Anderson. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.

Youtopia by Carrie Battan. First published in Outside, May 2020. Copyright 2020 by Carrie Battan. Reprinted by permission of Carrie Battan.

Senegals Beating Heart by Jim Benning. First published in Westways Magazine, May/June 2020. Copyright 2020 by Westways Magazine. Reprinted by permission of Westways Magazine.

Water or Sky? by Meg Bernhard. First published in Hazlitt, July 8, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Megan Bernhard. Reprinted by permission of Megan Bernhard.

Californias Weed Country Is Lit by Jackie Bryant. First published in Cannabitch, October 12, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Jackie Bryant. Reprinted by permission of Jackie Bryant.

Good Bread by Bill Buford. First published in The New Yorker, April 13, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Bill Buford. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.

Inside the Nightmare Voyage of the Diamond Princess by Doug Bock Clark. First published in GQ, June/July 2020. Copyright 2020 by Doug Bock Clark. Reprinted by permission of Doug Bock Clark.

I Decided to Leave by Meghan Daum. First published as I Left New York for Greener Pasturesand a Puppy in GEN, April 15, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Meghan Daum. Reprinted by permission of Meghan Daum.

Reindeer at the End of the World by Bathsheba Demuth. First published in Emergence Magazine, July 12, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Bathsheba Demuth. Reprinted by permission of Emergence Magazine.

The People of Las Vegas by Amanda Fortini. First published in The Believer, January 31, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Amanda Fortini. Reprinted by permission of Amanda Fortini.

Food, It Turns Out, Has Little to Do with Why I Love to Travel by Noah Galuten. First published in Eater, October 1, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Vox Media, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Vox Media, LLC.

Out There, Nobody Can Hear You Scream by Latria Graham. First published in Outside, September/October 2020. Copyright 2020 by Latria Graham. Reprinted by permission of Latria Graham.

To the Swimmer in the Borneo Rainforest by Meghan Gunn. First published in Off Assignment, April 23, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Meghan Gunn. Reprinted by permission of Meghan Gunn.

The Warmth of a Lost World by Leslie Jamison. First published in The New York Times Magazine, September 2, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Leslie Jamison. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.

In the City of Saints by Sarah Khan. First published in Travel + Leisure, November 2020. Copyright 2020 by Meredith Corporation. Reprinted by permission of Meredith Corporation.

Mississippi: A Poem, in Days by Kiese Makeba Laymon. First published in Vanity Fair, September 2020. Copyright 2020 by Kiese Laymon. Reprinted by permission of Kiese Laymon.

The New York You Once Knew Is Gone. The One You Loved Remains. by Glynnis MacNicol. First published in GEN, April 16, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Glynnis MacNicol. Reprinted by permission of Glynnis MacNicol.

The Losing Coast by Elizabeth Miller. First published in The Statesider, May 17, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Elizabeth Miller. Reprinted by permission of Elizabeth Miller.

Thousand Fields of Grain by Ligaya Mishan. First published in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, May 11, 2020. From T Magazine. Copyright 2020 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

To the Doctor of Bujumburas Quarantine Hotel by Jina Moore. First published in Off Assignment, June 17, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Jina Moore. Reprinted by permission of Jina Moore.

A Change in Perspective by Sarah Moss. First published in Travel + Leisure, June 2020. Copyright 2020 by Sarah Moss. Reprinted by permission of Sarah Moss.

On the Complicated Questions Around Writing About Travel by Intan Paramaditha. First published in Literary Hub, March 2, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Intan Paramaditha. Reprinted by permission of Intan Paramaditha.

Can Travel Become an Addiction? by Natalie Stoclet. First published in Playboy, January 22, 2020. Archival Playboy Magazine material. Copyright 2020 by Playboy. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Five Oceans, Five Deeps by Ben Taub. First published in The New Yorker, May 18, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Ben Taub. Reprinted by permission of Ben Taub.

A Fear-Filled Lockdown by Paul Theroux. First published in The New York Times, March 30, 2020. Copyright 2020 by Paul Theroux. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.

In the before times, I often composed my travel writing in the present tense. You know how the trick goes, the way the travel writer strains to swiftly bring the reader into a scene: Its a balmy night in Panama City, and Im sipping a rum at the bar of the largely empty Ocean Sun Casino... Im lounging on the sunny bow of the expatriates boat as we shove off from the historic city of Granada, Nicaragua, and into one of the worlds largest freshwater lakes... The sleight of hand is to make it seem as though were jotting off these dispatches on hotel room stationery or poolside or from a tray table in business class. As the days of shutdown dragged onas we Americans were forbidden to travel to most nations in the worldthis approach began to feel as old-fashioned as an epistolary Victorian novel.

What, exactly, is a travel writer who cannot travel? Ive thought a lot about this over the past few months. Throughout 2020 I was supposed to have been traveling to Italy, Spain, Austria, and Argentina, among others. That all was canceled when the European Union announced its travel ban, and Ive now been grounded at home for more than half a yearthe longest I have gone without getting on a plane in at least three decades. Of course, just stating this exposes the travel writers existential dilemma as one of immense, laughable privilege. Yet here we are. Do not cry for me.

Most days now, I write about travel in the past tense, generally in my old bathrobe at the kitchen table. For instance, Ive recently been sifting through notes and snapshots of my last trip, to France in the winter of 2020, only a few weeks before the pandemic hit home. On the evening that Chinese authorities closed down Wuhan, I wandered the ancient streets of Chinon, in the Loire Valley. Id spent all day with winemakers touring their fifteenth-century limestone caves, then tasting dozens of wines I was supposed to review on assignment for a wine magazine. I had to get up early and do it all over again in the morning, but I was restless.