Introduction: Did COVID Kill Travel Writing?

In the opening chapter to ‘Re-thinking Travel Writing: The Journey of a Genre’ the authors examine how, despite numerous calls for the end of travel writing as it is currently recognised, it is a form that has adapted and evolved throughout the centuries. This book takes a creative and practitioner focused approach to add further foundation to the continuation of meaningful and important travel writing studies in the wake of the 2020 pandemic. Authors Dr Ben Stubbs and Dr Lee Mylne look at topics including the history of adaptation, ethics, environmental concerns, nocturnal travel writing, ‘travelee’ culture, the rise of blogging and the influence of the form on ethnography and historiography to demonstrate the plurality that is possible within the re-thinking of travel writing.