Sometimes a city isn’t a skyline or a list of monuments. Sometimes it’s a story that refuses to stay still, slipping through tidy definitions and glossy brochures. I was recently invited—somehow, improbably—to write for the Ateneo de Cáceres, as part of their reflections on what culture means in the context of Cáceres’ bid for European…
My travel-essay, “Everywhere and Nowhere: Following Ibn Battuta Across Marbella”, has been selected as a finalist by Intrepid Times in their “A Book Led Me There” competition. Intrepid Times In this piece I venture beyond Marbella’s glittering façade of sun-saturated luxury—Ferraris, gold chains, shopping sprees—and into the old town’s labyrinth of alleys where the echoes…
A Secret Key: Returning to Jasper National Park When I began “On Borrowed Roads: Rediscovering Jasper,” I thought I was writing about distance — about what it means to return to Jasper National Park after so long away. I imagined readers who didn’t know the Canadian Rockies or the sound of the Athabasca River breaking…
We were crawling toward the Zimbabwean frontier—jet-lagged, half delirious, in a beat-up car straining under Africa’s heat. From the cassette deck floated the voice of Oliver Mtukudzi: joyous, sorrowful, unmistakably Zimbabwean. That music—lyrics I didn’t understand—spoke louder than passports or polite greetings. It wove us through checkpoint inspections, softened a policeman’s suspicion, and whispered stories…
Brendan Boyle took the time to read my book and was curious about it and we chatted about all things Extremadura on his podcast, La Comunidad. If you’re curious about the book or why it’s so damn hard to get out here, have a listen. Exploring under-explored Extremadura by Brendan Boyle With Troy Nahumko, author…
Curious about how literature, identity, and cultural myths intersect in the most unexpected places? My most recent stop on the Camino a Ítaca takes readers into the heart of Alberta’s book-ban culture—and reflects on the broader implications for societies everywhere, including Spain. Click over to read the English version over on SUR in English or…
Over twenty years ago, I lived in Yemen. Decades later, I found myself receiving WhatsApp messages from friends and former students in Sana’a—as bombs rained down around them. Real-time updates from people I cared about, living through hell. That experience will never leave me. What I didn’t expect was to see that same war discussed…
I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. My surname alone has had people thinking that I’m from a lost tribe to an island in Japan. In this week’s Camino a Ítica, the way my name can cause consternation among some. Life on the peninsula is no longer so monochrome, or monotheistic. Click…
Castillo de Montánchez Longform read published in the February issue of Perceptive Travel Magazine. (click over) A family trip to a curious festival where the blessed are not the meek, but in fact their modes of transport. “The sweep before us was more than 180 degrees. The savannah, some 1300 feet below, rolled off into…
In an age when American culture seems to permeate and even obliterate traditions around the world, it’s refreshing to local traditions hold strong against the ceaseless tide. Here in Spain they have incorportated Santa Claus and the mass consumerism of America into their Christmas season, but the main event is still the Three Kings Day…