MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: LARRY BLEIBERG

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I’m a freelance travel writer and editor, who works for magazines, newspapers and websites, including BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveler, the Washington Post, AAA, AARP, and many others. 

I write about trips, travel experiences and trends. I often get to travel, but also research and report travel news, like passport backlogs, COVID outbreaks on cruise ships, etc. I also have a website, Civil Rights Travel.com, devoted to visiting historic sites from the modern civil rights movement.

I’ve been working from Studio Ix since 2015, and became a full-time member when I moved to Charlottesville in 2019. I absolutely depend on it. (If I work from home for more than a day or two, I get antsy.) It’s an essential part of my work life, and I value the friends and acquaintances I’ve made here.

What do you love most about the work?

It’s not just the travel, although that’s certainly a bonus. It’s the fun and thrill of finding a story, researching it and telling it well. (If all works out!) I learned very early that when I write about a trip, it makes the experience so much richer. It’s often after traveling, when I’m reporting and learning the history and context of the place I’ve visited, that I really begin to understand what I’ve seen or done.

As for the types of articles I write, they’re varied – it’s often something surprising, unknown, forgotten, or undiscovered. It’s a chance to learn more about the world, and share it with others. My goal is to entice and intrigue readers, inspiring them to make the trip themselves.

Some of my favorite stories include articles about searching for Venus fly traps in the only place they grow in the wild (Wilmington, NC); playing the world’s best miniature golf course in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (naturally); and how the medieval clock tower in Bern, Switzerland, helped change the meaning of time. (You’ll have to look it up to see how!)

Recently, I wrote about climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which let me explore the story of how Australia came up with the idea of turning a commuter crossing into an urban travel adventure.

How did you arrive at this point in your career? What’s your backstory?

I’m a Woodward and Bernstein, Watergate-era baby. I grew up in Fairfax, eager to be a newspaper journalist and expose corrupt politicians and wrongdoers. And although I didn’t bring down a President(!), in a minor way, I did get to work in that world for a while, covering politics and crime and breaking news for newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Dallas. In Louisville, I served on a staff team that won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the country’s worst drunk-driving accident, which led to changes that made school buses safer.

But at heart, I was always a feature writer. It was at the Dallas Morning News that I began freelancing for my newspaper’s travel section, and I got really lucky and eventually was able to land a job as the editor.

Later I moved to Coastal Living magazine (a sister publication to Southern Living) in Birmingham, Ala., where I served as the travel editor. But because of family illness, I switched to freelancing in 2009, and have been doing that ever since.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally &/or personally along the way?

There have been many. 

At one point, several years after I switched from hard news to travel writing, I realized that even when I was covering news in Kentucky or Texas, I had really been travel writing. I was always looking for feature stories with a geographic hook – historic bridges, battlefield tours, and even an overlooked sculpture in a suburban Dallas office park that was actually a solstice marker.

Another moment came when I started freelancing, I knew I needed a break from the fancy, glammy world of travel. After editing stories about luxury hotels and $1,000 spa treatments, I felt that I needed to write about something important – something with meaning – if only to keep my soul clean.

I was living in Alabama at the time and realized that I was surrounded by civil rights history. And unlike other historic places (Gettysburg, the Alamo, etc.) I could still talk to people that participated in the events, including Freedom Riders, marchers, and even a woman who used to babysit for Martin Luther King’s family in Montgomery. All that led me to start my website. 

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

I just finished a story about what makes Istanbul one of the globe’s best food cities, and I’m excited to see it in print. I’m also heading to the Galapagos later this year, which should be wonderful. And I’m eager to write about several civil rights sites I visited during a recent reporting trip to Mississippi.

What are you currently reading? 

Like many people, I always have about four books going at once, usually about the topics I’m covering. But the book I’m most excited about is King, a new biography of Martin Luther King Jr., based on recently released documents. It was written by a former colleague of mine in Dallas, Jonathan Eig. We were basically cub reporters together, and my colleagues and I knew even then that he was brilliant. Now his book is a nominee for the National Book Award.

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

People often ask me to name my favorite place. I’ve been to some wonderful sites – the Himalayas, the island of Mauritius and Laos come to mind, and to all 50 states.  But the truth is my favorite place is simply the next place I’m going to visit.

To learn more about Larry’s work, visit his website HERE