This is a book for cultural travelers first of all.
It includes many cultural allusions, particularly to modern poetry, allusions that are self-evident in context.
This is not in any way a guidebook--no suggestions about where to stay or eat or anything like that. The focus is on the experience of travel; the places provide the occasions to explore that.
The author writes vivid descriptions of the places he visits, giving the reader a chance to “experience” destinations with him.
While most literary travel writing is quite formulaic--for example, it may recount a single heroic journey or go somewhere and talk about sinking in until the visitor is almost like a native--Cannot Stay is different. It is about the kinds of journeys most people take.
The individual essays form a collage about travel.
The author twice taught abroad as a Fulbright Scholar, first in Thessaloniki, Greece, and subsequently in Lahore, Pakistan.
The author received a Bakeless Prize in nonfiction for a book of literary essays.
The author teaches nonfiction, including essay, to graduate students in the Wilkes University Low Residency Creative Writing MA/MFA Program.
