Hallelujah!

Summer's almost here, which means so is Summer Camp for Travel Writers & Photographers!

That's the not-so-secret nickname for The Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference: four days that will change your life, introduce you to your tribe, advance your travel writing/photography journey, and most importantly, launch your karaoke career.

I'm super thrilled to be on faculty for the sixth consecutive year! I'll be teaching a morning session called "Alumni Boot Camp" with the amazing Jim Benning, co-founder of the legendary World Hum and current features editor at Westways/AAA. I could not be happier about this arrangement. Jim is, among many other things, excellent at covering for me when I'm running late to our morning workshop. He even makes sure I have coffee waiting for me. He's a gem, and you will learn A TON from him.

This year's faculty also includes such luminaries as, of course, Don George. There would be no conference without Don. Literally. He's faculty chair (and he did, after all, write "THE BIBLE"). We also have on deck the fabulous Larry Habegger, Travelers' Tales executive editor, and my amazing Nepal Workshop partner-in-crime, bestselling author Jeff Greenwald. (He also wrote the world's very first travel blog.) Then there's Andrew McCarthy: If his name sounds familiar, it's probably because he wrote that New York Times book review about my latest edition of The Best Women's Travel Writing. (And he was also in some movies and is now a kickass travel writer.) And HOORAY: there's the inimitable Abbie Kozolchyk, who has been to me both editor and editee (as an oft-published BWTW contributor) as well as leader of my aforementioned Tribe. And not last and certainly not least, my karaoke soul sister, the almost frustratingly talented and brilliant Candace Rose Rardon.

Guys, this is only about half of the lineup. There are so many extraordinary people teaching under one roof, imparting combined centuries worth of industry knowledge. Come on, there's Tim Cahill! And Pauline Frommer! Celeste Brash! Michael Shapiro! Catharine Hamm! Elizabeth Harryman! And many more! Plus all the incredible photography faculty whom I haven't even gotten to! They are awesome.

If none of this has convinced you, then ask yourself: What better way to spend four days than surrounded by a million books? And wine? Don’t you perhaps owe yourself a raucous night of karaoke? Also, sometimes they serve us s'mores. Usually there's whiskey. Occasionally ukuleles turn up. Last year there was a bonfire.

ALL OF WHICH IS TO SAY: PLEASE JOIN US FOR FOUR MADCAP, EDIFYING, INSPIRING, AND UNFORGETTABLE DAYS!

This conference truly does change lives. When I attended eight years ago, it changed my life. It has the capacity to change yours, too, if you let it. All you gotta do is sign up. Give yourself that gift. Invest in yourself and your creative path.

See you there!

I'll be the one hogging the mic.