WHEREABOUTS: Stepping Out of Place

Here's What People Are Saying

“These essays in WHEREABOUTS are on the move. To rum distilleries, ox carts, war zones, falafel stands, and daydreams where we meet versions of ourselves. The writers of this collection stand as capable and intrepid “purveyors of the connections the rest of us don’t see.” They are also connoisseurs of longing, adventure, and openness. Most marvelous is that whether the authors hold crowbars, bouzoukis, or babies, the complex truths of their essays give sturdy shelter to the many foreign selves we harbor.” ~Jennifer Boyden, author of The Mouths of Grazing Things (2010) and The Declarable Future (2013)

“We think of travel and life abroad as pivoting on geographic place, but it’s shaped just as much by the minds and bodies we bring with us. The voices in WHEREABOUTS offer a completely fresh approach to travel and life “out of place.” Compellingly narrative and, at times, dazzlingly lyrical, we hear and feel the uncensored inside stories — both cerebral and sensual — of people settling in or on the move all over our bright world.” ~Henry Hughes, Harvard Review

The stories in WHEREABOUTS transport readers to some of the most far-reaching spots on the planet to explore the deepest regions of the traveler’s psyche. Each tale in this brilliantly curated collection deals not only with places and the people that make them, but also with the transformative aspects of travel, inspiring us to take our own daring first steps into the unexplored.” ~Margot Bigg, author of Moon Living Abroad in India (2011) and Moon Taj Mahal, Delhi, and Jaipur (2012)

“The stories in WHEREABOUTS offer a broad collective understanding of the world we are currently living in. Expertly woven together by editor Brandi Dawn Henderson, the tales in turn instruct and entertain, explore and tap into the readers’ emotions, revealing that sometimes it’s not the land we are in that is foreign, so much as ourselves. With clarity, a keen eye, and at times a sharp wit, the authors collected here teach us that the best physical journeys are accompanied by equally extensive mental and emotional ones. In reading this collection, you can explore the world without having to leave the comfort of your couch. But by the time you reach the last page, you’ll be itching to get off the cushions and book yourself a ticket to anywhere.” ~Colin D. Halloran, author of Shortly Thereafter (2012)

“The collected essays of WHEREABOUTS capture the traveler’s paradox: a fascination with the ephemeral sense of the exotic versus the desire to belong, or at the least make peace with one’s role as outlier. Whether sitting in the hut of a Nepalese wise man or navigating the American Thanksgiving dinner table, these writers marvel at the unique and esoteric while teasing out those universal threads—loneliness, love, friendship–that tie us together. And they do so with humor, wit, and a gentle self-reflection that brings it all home. A joy to read.” ~Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson, author of Literature on Deadline (2007), and lecturer in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University

“WHEREABOUTS takes you from the well-heeled in St. Petersburg to a nude beach in Croatia, from tony Martha’s Vineyard to grungy Trenton. Still, the gifted writers in this surprising and beautifully crafted anthology are less preoccupied with where we travel than why we travel — an inquiry that gently permeates the essays here. This intimate look at the wanderlust in all of us turns on the question of what strangers — and strange lands— tell us about ourselves. Revelations abound in this wide-ranging and engrossing journey across continents.” ~Karen Houppert, author of Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People’s Justice (2010)