traveler
"How do you know if you are a traveler? What are the telltale signs? As with most compulsions, such as being a gambler, a kleptomaniac, or a writer, the obvious proof is that you can't stop...One sure sign of travelers is their relationship to maps. I cannot say for sure how much of my life I have spent looking at maps, but there is no map I won't stare at and study. I love to measure each detail with my thumb, to see how far I've come, how far I've yet to go..."
- from Nothing To Declare
It has been twenty-five years since Mary Morris set out on her solo journey to Mexico. From that year and a half away her travel classic, Nothing To Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Along, emerged, followed by Wall To Wall: From Beijing to Berlin by Rail, and Angels & Aliens. In this trilogy of travel memoirs Morris has explored her life as a journeywoman on the road - in Mexico as a single woman in a macho culture, in the former Soviet Union with her search for family, and in California where she struggles as a single parent and infiltrates New Age groups. Her experiences are at times terrifying, often hilarious and Morris, who is also co-editor of Maiden Voyages: The Journeys of Women, is a consummate speaker and storyteller.
In her speech, "Navigating the World: Reflections on Travel," (or "stupid things I've done, horrible places I've slept, and dumb luck I've had") Morris recalls a quarter of a century of journeys. She will evoke the Hindu god Ganesh (god of knowledge, candy and travel - "my favorite things") and speak about being a woman traveler and how women move through the world differently than men. How "the constraints and perils, the perceptions and complex emotions women journey with are different from those of men." And she will talk about how we navigate this new, uncertain post 9/ll terrain in which danger in the form of terrorism and mysterious disease has taken on a new meaning.
Her numerous travel essays and writings on such places as Hiroshima, Mantova, Puerta Vallarta, Jerusalem and the Galapagos have appeared in such publications as The New York Times/Sophisticated Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Travel Holiday and Town and Country, travel.
Like Indiana Jones Morris likes to make it up as she goes along and she will delight you with her stories and inform you with her realistic view of what it is like to travel in today's world.
Testimonials
We recently had Mary Morris on the George Mason campus to speak to our graduate students, and she instantly converted them all into her biggest fans. Not only was she funny and charming, she engaged the students in discussions drawing on her keen knowledge of life and the world and how they both should and do work. She was tremendous.
- William Miller, Director, Creative Writing Program, George Mason University
Mary Morris entertained, enlightened and enthralled our group of women travellers, wannabe travellers and aspiring travel writers. Drawing from her life experiences and quoting liberally from her writings, she closed out the season in our Lunch & More Speaker Series with a bang. Her topic was Navigating the World: Reflections on Travel focusing on her experieces as a traveler and travel writer. She spoke about how women move through the world and how that world has changed since 9/ll. Then, for another 45 minutes she generously answered all our questions."
- Kathie Daley, Women's Resource Center, Summit, NJ
- Anita Shreve"I loved it. The writing is superb, and the tension Morris creates between Andrea and Loretta keeps the reader anxious - a beautiful example of the thread of literary suspense."
- Jodi Picoult"The River Queen is my new favorite book. I wish I'd been the one to write something so flawless, so honest and so resonant."
author of
My Sister's Keeper