Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing
edited by Alden Jones
Available 5/20/25
The first inclusive LGBTQ+ travel anthology, Edge of the World explores what it means to be a queer person moving through the world.
edited by Alden Jones
Available 5/20/25
The first inclusive LGBTQ+ travel anthology, Edge of the World explores what it means to be a queer person moving through the world.
edited by Alden Jones
Available 5/20/25
The first inclusive LGBTQ+ travel anthology, Edge of the World explores what it means to be a queer person moving through the world.
"A dazzling gift to our queer communities and a most loving invitation for all kinds of wandering souls to walk through the world on our too-often-overlooked magical margins." —Porochista Khakpour, author of Tehrangeles and Sick
“In the pages of Edge of the World you'll find much more than travel advice. Each of these incredibly vulnerable and beautifully written essays remind us that our identities can affect where we go, who we are expected to be in those spaces, and that beauty (and heartache) can be found almost everywhere. I'm grateful to each of this anthology's contributors for their stories, and I believe you will be, too—queer or not.” —De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills and Decent People
“If, like most queers I know, you're more yourself when you're not at home, and your sense of home itself is fraught, and most days find you simultaneously restless and dreamy and anxious about your thirst for adventure, these stories are your stories. Candid, wise, and filled with longing, Edge of the World is an essential compendium of the unique discoveries we've made on our most unforgettable journeys. I'm shocked this vital book hasn't existed until now.”—Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
“If I were curating a cohort to accompany me on my travels I could hardly do better than the writers assembled in this collection. Witty, intelligent, gossipy, and wise, these writers remind me of why I love to travel. Their essays beautifully trace the different ways queerness interacts with being a stranger in a strange land, alive to possibility and reinvention.”—Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland
These lively essays by luminary writers offer a queer perspective on how people experience other cultures and how other cultures receive queer people. This anthology of essays includes the perspectives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans American authors from multiple ethnic identities, showcasing the travel writing of both established and emerging authors across a wide age spectrum to address these central questions. Contributors who have committed work thus far include Alexander Chee, Edmund White, Daisy Hernández, Putsata Reang, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Garrard Conley, Nicole Shawan Junior, Raluca Albu, Genevieve Hudson, Zoë Sprankle, and Calvin Gimpelevich. Their essays take the reader to different areas of the world including Spain, Ukraine, Florida, Cuba, New York City, Ecuador, Cambodia, Russia, Senegal, Berlin, Paris, and more.
paperback ISBN: 9781958888513
Alden Jones is an award-winning author and educator whose travel writing has appeared in Best American Travel Writing 2000, the inaugural volume of the series, and named “Notable” in Best American Travel Writing 2005 and 2011. Her most recent book is Lambda Literary Award-finalist The Wanting Was a Wilderness (Fiction Advocate, 2020). Her travel memoir, The Blind Masseuse: A Traveler’s Memoir from Costa Rica to Cambodia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013) was longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award, named a top travel book by Publishers Weekly, and recommended by National Geographic as a book to celebrate Pride. She is also the author of the story collection Unaccompanied Minors (New American Press, 2014), a Lambda Literary Award nominee and finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut LGBT Fiction. Her stories and essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, New York Magazine, The Cut, Agni, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, BOMB, and GO Magazine. She is Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College, teaching creative writing and queer literature, and a core faculty member of the Newport MFA at Salve Regina University. She is the recent winner of a Whiting Fellowship for travel to Cambodia and Vietnam, where her novel-in-progress is partially set.
