Grand Tour, The Journal of Travel Literature
Thorofare, NJ 08086
Dear Ms. Fisher:
I’m a homebody. When I travel, which isn’t often, I like to go somewhere and stay awhile. A few years ago, however, I met the man with whom I now share my life, who was at that time living 200 miles from my home. For a period of about six months, I made a weekly commute to see him. I hated the interstate; it didn’t take me long to discover an alternate route, most of it along the old US highways the interstate replaced. During the months I retraced this route, I developed a wholly unanticipated attachment to the landscape I passed through but never set foot in. The enclosed essay, “Half Life,” is about that strange, disruptive period in my life, that landscape, and a long, long spring.
I very much enjoyed your premier issue, which a writing friend loaned me, particularly the essays about going down into the cave and taking the bus from NY to Wyoming. I’m very glad to see someone publishing travel essays instead of destination pieces, which I used to write until I just couldn’t stomach it any more. I hate telling people where to turn their heads and ooh and aah (or where to go buy things). It’s the discoveries that I didn’t expect to make that get me out on the road.
I’m a Contributing Editor, columnist and writer for Blue Ridge Country Magazine. A longtime reporter and feature writer for East Tennessee and Western North Carolina daily and weekly newspapers, I’ve written many articles for state and regional magazines. Recently I’ve begun turning more of my attention to personal essays, which have been published in National Gardening, GreenPrints, Snowy Egret, and Maiden Voyages. One of my Blue Ridge columns received a Silver Award from the International Regional Magazine Association last year.
I enclose a SASE and look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth C. Hunter
[Note: Read the essay “Half Life” tomorrow.]