Eddy L Harris stops by Travel Writing World to answer a few questions about his career as a writer. He is the author of several books, including the acclaimed Mississippi Solo (Macmillan 1988/John Murray 2021).
How did you first become interested in writing travel books?
Like almost everything with me, I fell into travel writing by accident. It didn’t occur to me to write about the journey down the Mississippi until halfway through, just about the time I was ready to abandon the trip. When I got to St Louis, the same friends who had told me I was an idiot for wanting to do the trip in the first place were now telling me how cool it was. I realized then that I was doing something vaguely important, important enough to continue, important enough to write about it.
How did you manage to get your first travel book published?
Accident and luck. I sent a portion of the manuscript to twenty publishers. Every time I got a rejection, I sent the packet to another publisher. Fifty-five rejections. Finally, I put Mississippi Solo aside and proposed another idea to a small publisher in New York. Another rejection. They didn’t like the idea, but they responded to the writing. I dusted off Solo and sent it to them. They loved it.
What is your writing process like, both on the road and at home? And how long does it take you to write a book inclusive of the research, travel, writing, and editing phases?
On the road, I take a few notes and a lot of photos, but I do not write. The writing comes after the journey. Part of the reason for writing is to better understand what the journey was all about. There is the physical journey and there is the spiritual journey, what the journey meant to me and how it will have affected and changed me. That’s what I write about.
What books or authors influence or inform your own work?
Travels with Charlie is probably the only travel book I read before I traveled down the Mississippi. I’ve read a bit since–Theroux, Iyer, Naipaul, Chatwin and books that mix place and politics like Christopher Merrill’s The Old Bridge—but I try not to indulge too often for fear that I might borrow a little too much and too often. But then again, what good book isn’t at once a mystery thriller and a travel book? We write about life, and life is a journey.
What advice would you give to someone interested in writing a travel book?
Hit the road. Meet people. Talk to EVERYBODY. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable.
What is so appealing about the travel book as a literary form?
When you can’t travel for real, you can travel vicariously. When you can travel, reading feeds the imagination. But the goal—for me—is to nourish the soul and to discover the world and to put myself in someone else’s shoes.
Why write about travel?
I only write to discover my place in the world. The writing is strictly an off-shoot of my desire and need to travel, to put myself out in the world and see what happens, to learn who I am, to stretch myself out of my comfort zones and ultimately to enlarge my comfort zones. After so many years in so many places, meeting so many people, the world is my comfort zone.
Eddy L Harris stops by Travel Writing World to answer a few questions about his career as a writer. He is the author of several books, including the acclaimed Mississippi Solo (Macmillan 1988/John Murray 2021).
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