Sometimes, I worry that the market for travel writing will one day be nothing more than requests for generic guidebook descriptions, Top 10 Lists, and articles written more for SEO than storytelling. What will happen to the long-form narrative that whisks me away to faraway lands, lures me into another culture, and lets me eavesdrop on strangers’ conversations? Sure, those quickie profiles help when I’m planning a trip, but when I settle down with a cup of tea on a drizzly day like today, I want to be told a story. So, in this Weekend Escape, I offer up some fab narrative travel pieces I discovered this week: ones that feature the type of writing that made me want to be a travel writer in the first place.

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