Beyond the Selfie: The Art and Ethics of Writing Authentic Travel Memoir

In a world flooded with globetrotting influencers and endless top 10 lists, is there still a place for meaningful and evocative first-person travel writing?

Palais Mehdi in Marrakech, photo by Kerra Bolton

I am writing this from a quiet bungalow nestled at the edge of a converted palace in Marrakech. A white marble fountain, its edges lined with floating rose petals, sits at the center of the main courtyard. The warm, spicy aroma of tagine drifts in from the kitchen. Inside the palace — now a hotel lobby — a mixture of traditional and modern Moroccan art stretches across time, inviting the viewer to either make sense of the disharmony or appreciate its controlled chaos.

Within seconds of arriving, I snap and post a photo of the palace lobby with the caption, “What’s good, Morocco?”

“Holy Mother of Casablanca, that’s gorgeous!” my friend Paul comments.

Admittedly, the reactions of my friends and family give me a small, orange-blossom glow of pride. But that glow is fleeting. Too often, travel writing is reduced to glossy social media captions, bucket-list bravado and budget-friendly travel hacks. It can be so much more than that, though. Trave…