Home & Away

Award-winning Travel Stories by New Zealand Writers
Selected and Edited by Graeme Lay
Published 3rd August, $34.99

Marking the 20th anniversary of Travcom's celebrated annual travel media awards, the association has collaborated with New Holland Publishers to produce an anthology of the best short travel stories by Kiwi writers.

Following a visit over 20 years ago to the conference of the Australian Society of Travel Writers, a group of journalists set up not-for-profit ‘Travcom’ (New Zealand Travel Communicators) – as it had become clear to them that most of our New Zealand travel writing fell short of an international standard. Travcom was established to encourage higher standards of travel writing and photography, with the Travcom Awards rewarding excellence.

This year, each previous winner or finalist of a Travcom award was invited to submit their story for inclusion in this new book, Home & Away, and with 108 submissions, Editor Graeme Lay whittled it down to the best 35.

The stories in Home & Away are the crème of our New Zealand travel journalism talent. Evoking a strong sense of place, accompanied by unique characters encountered along the way, these travel stories far exceed the ‘travel guide’ perspective, instead drawing the reader vicariously to another world.

Travcom President, Kathryn Webster remarks about the book’s release, ‘It’s very satisfying to have solid evidence of the value of Travcom to promote the concept of quality travel writing in New Zealand. This book is testament to the great wealth of talent in this country, and also to the efforts of all those people dedicated to supporting good travel writing – the awards organisers, the sponsors and members of various Travcom committees.’

The title spells it out; Home & Away proves it is not solely overseas travel encounters that are the most beguiling; pieces included in the book about our local soil have as much impact as tales of the exotic, transporting us to another world, yet one that is so familiar and on our doorstep.

Home & Away shows the depth of curiosity our small nation and individual writers have in exploring the wider world: learning Spanish in Guatemala, soaking up the energy of Berlin, a literary immersion in Dublin, desert adventures in Pakistan and on safari in Africa – right through to a night out in Waitangi and a gruelling journey down the West Coast. Home & Away is testament to why our writing now sits with ease on the international stage. The Editor: Graeme Lay is the author of three collections of travel writing, as well as several novels for adults and young adults and four collections of short stories. He has travelled widely, particularly in the South Pacific. He is secretary of the Frank Sargeson Trust, and lives on Auckland’s North Shore. Travcom is a not-for-profit association of New Zealand travel writers, photographers and travel-related communicators. It was established in the early 1990s to encourage and promote quality, professional travel writing and photography.

For more information about Travcom see www.travelcommunicators.co.nz