Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing

Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing

An inclusive LGBTQ+ travel anthology, Edge of the World explores what it means to be a queer person moving through the world. These lively essays by luminary writers offer a queer perspective on how people experience other cultures and how other cultures receive queer people. This anthology of essays includes the perspectives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans American authors from multiple ethnic identities, showcasing the travel writing of both established and emerging authors across a wide age spectrum to address these central questions. Contributors include Alexander Chee, Edmund White, Daisy Hernández, Putsata Reang, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Denne Michele Norris, Garrard Conley, Andrew Ellis Evans, Nicole Shawan Junior, Raluca Albu, KB Brookins, Genevieve Hudson, Zoë Sprankle, Sara Orozco, and Calvin Gimpelevich. Their essays take the reader to different areas of the world including Spain, Ukraine, Florida, New York City, Mexico, Cambodia, Russia, Senegal, Berlin, and more. Hudson News Featured Title for June 2025 May 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us, Ms. Magazine Best Books to Celebrate Pride, Goodreads Put These Popular Books by LGBTQ+ Authors on Your Reading List, Sunset Magazine 10 Queer Travel Books to Read This Summer, Condé Nast Traveler “In the intrepid, intimate essays of Edge of the World , edited by Alden Jones, travel engenders realizations about self, society, and the value of queer community…. [A] stellar anthology of miniature travelogues that are as illuminating about identity as they are about the places they feature.” —Foreword Reviews , STARRED review “This dynamic collection of queer travel writing will have you longing for the inspiration, energy and connection brought on by exploring new peoples and places. From Cambodia to the Netherlands and Russia to Senegal, these stories are contributed by some of my favorite writers, including Genevieve Hudson, Alexander Chee, Putsata Reang and Daisy Hernández.” —Ms. Magazine “The groundbreaking collection brings together diverse voices exploring the unique challenges, joys and revelations of navigating foreign spaces while queer—filling a critical gap in a genre historically dominated by straight, cisgender perspectives…Through these diverse queer voices, readers gain not just new destinations to explore, but entirely new ways of experiencing the journey.” —Pride Source "With essays from Alexander Chee, Daisy Hernandez, Edmund White, and more, the collection makes clear that queer travel writing isn’t just overdue—it’s transformative.” — Slate , Outward podcast “[An anthology] to keep on-hand in the passenger seat and readily accessible in your carry-on for the plane…the essays in Edge of the World open the mic stand to an array of writers in the LGBTQ+ community. A fine coterie of writers that includes Garrard Conley, Genevieve Hudson, and Denne Michele Norris lends an idiosyncratic voice and a real heartbeat to the destinations they’ve dreamed of, lived in, and moved through.” —Condé Nast Traveler “I cried a bunch while reading Edge of the World ...a profoundly topical collection…. Each one of the stories is richly heartfelt and thoughtful in considering how broader contexts affect the narrator’s experience of moving across borders and boundaries. If you enjoyed the memoirs of Trevor Noah or Putsata Reang…or Ocean Vuong’s autofiction, this book is a must-read…The second line of Jones’ introduction…says that ‘We travel to find each other.' I believe most readers will be able to find pieces of themselves and their loved ones, their fears and anxieties and hopes and dreams reflected in these pages. While the stories will remind readers that the fraughtness and fear of moving through an unjust world is not new, they also express something more hopeful, more powerful: that the importance of community to surviving and thriving remains as old as love. Whether you’ve traveled the world or only two towns over, there is probably a story or two that will speak to you. The rest will hopefully expand your perspective on what is possible—or better yet, where it is possible to go from here.” —The Lesbrary “A powerful new anthology of queer travel writing. Read Edge of the World not just because it’s queer; read it because it’s beautiful, because it’s honest; because it will make you a better, more empathetic person. That’s what great writing does. And for those of us who see yourselves in these pages, thank you for telling your stories...we need them." —Alyssa Milano, Sorry Not Sorry podcast " Edge of the World brings readers to the cusp of longing. At the heart of this collection of travel essays is a queering of narrative, of point of view, of relationships between people as well as the relationship queer humans have to the nonhuman world around them. Underneath tourism an entire universe exists that teaches us how to see each other and the planet differently. This book will open eyes and hearts in the most astonishing, beautiful ways