Selected Travel Writing
When it comes to wine, Monterey has euro chic
Coast Magazine, February 10 2020
In 1919, Charles Tamm came upon remote hills in Monterey County that reminded him of his homeland in Burgundy, France. Homesick, he planted his French grape seeds in what he guessed, rightly, was similarly volcanic soil. Today, the Chalone Vineyards still grow grapes on those original vines, producing wines with the terroir of their ancestral lands. When Chalone brought their Chardonnay to the 1976 Judgement of Paris for a blind tasting, it beat its French competitors.
Playing it by the book in Santa Monica: Gateway to the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows reading program
Coast Magazine, October 31 2019
Many words come to mind when describing Southern California’s beach communities -- sunny and warm, breezy and fun, or even, without exaggeration, paradisiacal -- but “literary” is probably not among them. And yet, writers of note have made their home here for decades, from the German “Exiliteratur” authors -- most notably Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht -- who found safe haven here from the Nazis in the 30s and 40s, to the numerous literary denizens of LA’s beach towns today: Laila Lalami, Geoff Dyer, Anthony Swofford, and Sarah Manguso, to name a few. We don’t just like to surf, sip coffee, and shop. We like to write, and we like to read.
