Editor’s Note: I got to ask travel blogger, writer, conference organizer, and travel guru Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt some questions about travel, writing, and books (some of my favorite subjects, and, luckily, his too). *This article contains affiliate link(s). Any affiliate link means that I may earn advertising/referral fees if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps to keep this magazine afloat and allows us to compensate our writers. Thank you ...

*This article contains affiliate link(s). Any affiliate link means that I may earn advertising/referral fees if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps to keep this magazine afloat and allows us to compensate our writers. Thank you for your support.* We are constantly receiving amazing submissions to the magazine. Sometimes a piece doesn’t work because it doesn’t fit the theme, it’s too long, too short, not specific enough, or the writing needs ...

By Sammantha Bennett Paris was chaos. Ten days after suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a concert hall, a stadium, restaurants, and bars, I stepped off a train from Munich into a swarm of armed military and local law enforcement at Gare de l’Est. I had 40 liters on my back and a bit of panic in my mind. Munich had been so perfectly Bavarian: neat, clean, peaceful, expected. Everyone had been polite and no one crossed the street unless the ...

By Kelly Murray The only way to read Flannery O’Connor is while taking a hot bath in a clawfoot tub in an old Victorian home on a warm night in Savannah, Georgia. That’s exactly where I was when I read her for the first time. I was staying at an Airbnb in Savannah’s Eastside district; a gorgeous renovated Victorian home with four bedrooms, a grand staircase, wraparound porch, a sunny shared kitchen, and, yes, a clawfoot tub. Three of them, ...

By Marcia De Sanctis One of the great pleasures of writing a book about France is having the opportunity to give talks about some of my most beloved places. My audience is often a sea of erudite women assembled over petits-fours or roast lamb lunches. At the conclusion, the question always comes, inevitable as the sunrise: “But what is your very most, number one place in France?” My answer is always the same–the truth, but a non-committal one. “Any table ...

By Adria Carey Perez Here’s my monthly round-up of links, books, articles, and other things I like that round out my ideas about the issue. If you like something, leave a comment. If you have something to recommend, contact me! I’m always looking for reading material. By subscribing to my newsletter, you will receive more of my favorites every month. Articles:   The women changing adventure travel   This is pretty cool!   One for the bucket list: A visit ...

By Adria Carey Perez Do you know the story of Zora Neale Hurston? She published Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of my favorite once-forgotten books,  in 1937, was a writer at the center of the Harlem Renaissance, and was an adventurous anthropologist and folklorist, traveling extensively in the South, Jamaica, Haiti, and Honduras. And she died penniless in obscurity in 1960. She traveled, she wrote, and she challenged cultural mores of her time. Because of a 1975 Ms. Magazine article by ...

Where the Fish (and Chips) Are Plentiful Living in the UK for a few years, I ate my more than my fair share of fish and chips. That crispy, golden goodness sustained my family and I through countless day trips, pub afternoons, and Now that I am home in the US, it’s a meal I only eat when I make it at home (that old Mickey D’s Filet-O-Fish just doesn’t cut it). It brings me immediately back to my time as ...

This book review of The Third Plate is the first in a series of travel-related book reviews in Odyssa Magazine. The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food Dan Barber is in Season One of Chef’s Table, a series on Netflix to which I am addicted. I am blown away every episode by the passion and certainty of the featured chefs. So, Dan Barber is no schlub when it comes to cooking and ingredients. With his experimental farm in New ...