On Saturday, 8/6, we'll gather in lovely downtown Wayne, PA, for a reading and signing of WAYS OF WALKING, the new anthology edited by Ann de Forest. Then, to celebrate in the most appropriate way, we'll go for a walk!

Says William Sharpe of Barnard College, ​“Walking’s pleasures are infinite, and those in Ways of Walking hardly less so. Editor Ann de Forest has assembled an eloquent team of rambling writers who offer readers intriguing discoveries at every turn of the page. The twenty-six essays assembled here contain fresh takes on city streets and foggy mountaintops, haunting riversides and dicey edgelands."

These writers, says Inga Saffron, have "brought back rich insights that remind us that walking is the most literary of exercises."

All are welcome to join us with their heads, their hearts, and their feet. More details here.

A new review of Ways of Walking emphasizes how "walking is an exploration of ourselves as much as of the world." The reviewer, Antonia Malchik, author of A Walking Life, writes:

The review quotes appreciatively from several of the book's 26 essays, and Malchik finds that one of the book's passages, from contributor Ruth Knafo Setton, is written "more evocatively than an entire volume of Thoreau." The review concludes:

Many thanks to Ms. Malchik for this lovely review. Nice picture too!

On July 12 at 7:00 p.m. EST, Christine Nelson offers an online lecture to celebrate Thoreau's 205th birthday. The talk is based on her essay in our book WAYS OF WALKING, and it stems from her many years as the keeper of Thoreau's journal at New York's Morgan Library & Museum.

Author of the famous essay "Walking," Thoreau made some startling observations in his journal, including his concept of a library buried "far away in the depths of a primitive forest."

To register for the event, go here.

Two of the authors of our anthology Ways of Walking, editor Ann de Forest and contributor Nathaniel Popkin, are presenting an online "cafe" discussion on Tuesday, July 5, at 11:30 a.m. EST. They'll be speaking live from Catalonia, Spain, as part of an international conference.

The conference as a whole, which takes place across three cities in Catalonia, is titled "Walking Art and Relational Geographies." We confess that we don't fully understand what that means, but to the conference participants, it seems that walking is much more than exercise or relaxation or mind-clearing or getting from here to there. It's "an urgent and necessary perspective through which to look, analyse and understand the contemporary world."

Indeed, that's what the book Ways of Walking conveys: reflections by 26 different authors on the deeper meaning of moving the feet. Imagining a walk from Vermont to New York City, contributor Mark Geanuleas writes, "Between here and there everything is more important than you, everything must be faced, no mile, no mosquito, no neighborhood can be avoided." As a result, he contends, the self that arrives in New York is "founded upon the world," whereas, for someone who drives or takes a train, the world is founded upon the self.

That's deep. To get a taste of what such thoughtful walkers are meditating about, you can register for the online cafe talk here. And to read more about the entire conference, go here.

Louis Greenstein, author of Mr. Boardwalk, has recorded a podcast interview and tour of his old haunts in Atlantic City for the Real Jersey Shore Show. Along the way he confesses to being a childhood mascot for the lifeguard crew and tells how his father got into baking and selling pretzels. With host Lauren Doral, he discovers the eternal truth that "you can't have a boardwalk without a psychic," and he recommends where to get the best sub sandwich.

Many thanks for Janet Fitch's long, appreciative review of Ways of Walking in the Los Angeles Review of Books. It's worth reading in its entirety (she discusses all 26 essays in the book!), but here's how she concludes:

Our acclaimed new anthology WAYS OF WALKING will stride forth into the world on May 12. (Note: It's "acclaimed" not just by us but by some reasonably sane people as well.) There will be TWO launch events, one virtual on May 12 and then an in-person gathering on May 15. Everyone is welcome to attend both events, but they require separate registrations.

Here is the info with links to the registration sites:

Thursday, May 12, 7:00-8:30 p.m., virtual launch via Zoom

Sunday, May 15, 4:00-6:00 p.m., in-person launch at Calvary Center for Culture and Community,  801 S. 48th Street (corner of 48th and Baltimore), Philadelphia, PA

The Zoom event will be hosted by our local South Philly bookstore A Novel Idea on Passyunk, and their staff will be on hand to sell books at the in-person event as well.

[Updated 3/23/22]

Our next book, Ways of Walking, won't quite be ready for the AWP conference in Philadelphia, but we'll be celebrating it anyway, with handouts, a preorder discount code, and a sample booklet. Look for us at the Blue Stoop table (T1108) in the Bookfair exhibit at the Convention Center.

In conjunction with Ways of Walking, and out of compassion for those who can't listen to fellow writers chatter for more than four hours at a time, we're hosting an afternoon of walks outside the convention center, guided by contributors to the book. These will take place on Friday, March 25, between 2:00 and 4:30 p.m. The walks will vary in length and destination, and we promise not to get you lost in the all-too-square layout of downtown Philly. It'll be fun!

The meetup site will be the Blue Stoop table at the Bookfair. The walks are also open to writers not at the conference; to join from outdoors, hang out at the NE corner of Arch St. and Broad St. by the time listed below for your walk. The walk leaders will stop by that corner to check for eager participants.

Here are the planned routes, durations, and starting times (but check in with us at the table for any late changes):

2:00: Market Street East and Independence Mall, 2 hours
2:00: Delaware Riverfront, 2 hours
2:30: Society Hill to Queen Village, 1 hour
3:00: Italian Market, 1 hour
3:30: Rittenhouse Square, 1 hour
4:00: Eraserhood/Ridge Avenue (1/2 hour)

(The originally planned 3:30 walk to Logan Circle has been canceled because of a family emergency.)

​We hope to see a lot of people we know and meet a lot of new writers.

The first two advance reviews have arrived for Ways of Walking:

​“Walking’s pleasures are infinite, and those in Ways of Walking hardly less so. Editor Ann de Forest has assembled an eloquent team of rambling writers who offer readers intriguing discoveries at every turn of the page. The twenty-six essays assembled here contain fresh takes on city streets and foggy mountaintops, haunting riversides and dicey edgelands. Often, the celebrated wonders of walking stand aside to let danger, disability, and discouragement have their say, too. One high point is a self-doubting pilgrimage through library vaults to commune with the climate-controlled notebooks of Henry David Thoreau. In 1851 Thoreau advised himself, ‘Probe the universe in a myriad points.’ That could be the epigraph for this rewarding volume. Whether you take your steps in ten-league boots or bedroom slippers, you will find insight and inspiration a-plenty in these stimulating pages.”
--William Sharpe, Barnard College, author of The Art of Walking: A History in 100 Images (Yale University Press, forthcoming)

“This rich, readerly collection of essays on the multiple possibilities open to us as members of a species constitutively shaped by its ability to walk on two feet is, simply, inspiring. Its writers vividly record the travails and the triumphs of their travels on foot, in ways that force us to reconceptualise our relationship both to the environments we inhabit and to one another. The book is a moving, endlessly stimulating invitation to walk, to think, and to rethink walking.”
--Matthew Beaumont, author of The Walker: On Finding and Losing Yourself in the Modern City

The book will be published in May. To request an advance review copy, use the Contact page.

At long last, we can announce our next book, coming out in May 2022: WAYS OF WALKING, a collection of essays edited by Ann de Forest.

Is walking a subversive act? For the authors of this book, it can be.

Ways of Walking brings together 26 writers who reflect on walks they have taken and what they have discovered along the way. Some walk across forbidden lines, violating laws to seek freedom. Some walk to bear witness to social injustice. Still others engage in a subtler subversion—violating the social norm of rapid, powered transportation to notice what fast travelers miss.

Through walking, these authors become more attuned to the places they move across, more attentive to intricate ecologies and layered histories—and more connected to themselves as well. Their small steps of rebellion lead to unexpected discoveries.

The volume includes writers of national renown such as Tom Zoellner, Ruth Knafo Setton, and Rahul Mehta, as well as contributors in other fields, from photography to music to archaeology.

The editor, Ann de Forest, is a California native who has been living and writing in fairly happy exile in Philadelphia for more than three decades. An expert in the urban landscape and the resonance of place, she is a contributing writer for HIDDEN CITY DAILY and editor of EXTANT MAGAZINE. Her poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in COAL HILL REVIEW, NOCTUA REVIEW, UNBROKEN, HOTEL AMERIKA, THE JOURNAL, PIF, CLEAVER MAGAZINE, and THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF PHILADELPHIA.

Contributors: