George Davis, George Davis, George Davis

George, above Lake Champlain.

Born over three decades ago in Manhattan but living in other far-flung destinations like Paris; Rome; the Adirondacks of upstate New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Washington, DC and northwestern Massachusetts George Davis is less a New Yorker than a lost-and-found bin, a pell-mell collection of places, people and old smelly socks.

He's first and foremost a slightly overzealous traveler, but also an intrepid flâneur, a peripatetic teacher, a sometime athlete, a hack fly-fisherman, a pipe-dreamer and a storyteller of sorts. For better and for worse the Margaux project has been the rather organic progeny of all these influences. Fortunately, more pragmatic, focused visionaries like Nana Chen balance out George's maverick tendencies, leaving him space to contemplate the perfect future: sail the globe and finally finish writing that novel a dozen years after its inception.

When asked for a byline George offered, "I prefer morning to evening, texture to color, and experience to instruction." Yeah, okay, whatever... [Continue...]

Melody Lee, Melody Lee, Melody Lee

Melody, victorious over Rio de Janeiro!

Melody Lee is a Northern California transplant, desperately trying to adjust to living in Los Angeles. By day, she is a copy editor who gleefully marks up articles for FLEX magazine, while cringing at photos of muscular men and women. By night, she becomes a craft queen, knitting and creating new projects. Once her May 2005 wedding is out of the way, she hopes to travel the world with her soon-to-be husband, Matt, before settling down and becoming a mom.

Katy, Balatero, Katy Balatero

Katy, swinging high above the Panamanian jungle floor.

Katy Balatero grew up in Seattle, WA with an appreciation for the ocean and an interest in marine conservation. Coincidentally, she is also fatally allergic to seafood. Katy graduated from Stanford University in 2003 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. Her experiences as a field research assistant in various areas of ecology have taken her to butterfly gardens in Washington State, tidepools on the California coast, the Kenyan savanna, and the top of the Panamanian rainforest canopy. Katy loves to travel overseas; as soon as she returns from one trip, she itches for the next one.

After recent volunteer work at Seattle-area nonprofits, Katy has decided to pursue a career in science, nature, or travel publishing. While Katy's plans are steering her away from her original goal of becoming a marine biologist, she is still able to witness the earth's biodiversity on a daily basis working as a technician at a veterinary clinic that treats parrots, reptiles, and other exotic pets.

Alice Kang, Alice Kang, Alice Kang

Alice confronts the paparazzi.

Alice Kang, a Los Angelino who edits for a law corporation and finished her studies in June 2003 at the Universita per Stranieri in Siena, Italy and the University of California, Riverside, is not only an editing superstar. She's also bilingual in English and Korean, conversational in Italian and knowledgeable in Spanish. How do you pronounce polyglot in Korean, Alice? In her spare time (when she's not shopping, her admitted addiction), she writes screenplays and short stories.

Alice's favorite place in the world is Piazza Del Campo in Siena, Italy, and she would "move to Italy in the drop of a hat if a good opportunity arose." Sounds good to us so long as the good opportunity includes a fast web connection and enough time to keep editing e-Marginalia travel stories!

Nana Chen, Nana Chen, Nana Chen

Nana, wandering and photographing in Jaisalmer, India.

Before becoming a freelance photographer and writer, Nana Chen was the Travel Editor of e-Marginalia.com and Editor of ACNielsen Taiwan for over seven years. Her photography and writing have appeared in South China Morning Post (SCMP), topwritecorner.com, Still Moments, e-Marginalia.com and Lexima.gr (translated to Greek).  Nana’s photographs and paintings have been exhibited in Taipei, Montreal and New York City galleries. Her work has been featured and reviewed on International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT), in New York City’s Gallery&Studio, This Month in Taiwan, and other media. She is currently a columnist for WorldBeat in SCMP and contributes to several in-flight magazines. Nana lives in Taipei with her four cameras. [Continue...]

Louie Chen, Louie, Chen

Louie is perennially happy about food!

After being terminated and rehired for the eighth time at his father’s Chinese restaurant, Louie applied for permanent exile and sought asylum by going to university. He vowed to never ever pick up another wok or set foot inside a restaurant unless it was to eat. At the “refugee camp” he paid for books he never opened and enrolled in all the language courses, forgetting he was pursuing studies in chemistry. As the funds dried up, he swallowed “never-ever” and stepped through the back door of a European restaurant.

Alas, it wasn’t all in vain for Louie quickly learned far more outside his father’s kitchen. For instance, it wasn’t normal practice to be fired, rehired and fired again during the same lunch shift. He learned more trivial and useful culinary skills such as not spilling expensive wines on customers. Ever important was the task of serving a teacup with its handle at the four o'clock position or the heated debate over the origin of Czech sauerkraut. He learned he could be a vegetarian after replacing the butcher and making diplomatic acquaintances with several representatives of the animal kingdom. [Continue...]

Carson, Christiano, Carson Christiano

Carson Christiano

Carson Christiano grew up exploring the backwoods of Minnesota, attended high school and college outside Chicago, and is currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, teaching tenth grade English and exercising her tolerance for spicy food. Always in search of a new way to get lost (so that she can write about it later), Carson takes every opportunity she can get to venture someplace beautiful, wild or enchanting. Her favorite traveling moments include piranha fishing in the Amazon, floating through underground rivers in New Zealand, watching the full moon rise over the rim of the Grand Canyon, and zooming around Sicily on a moped. [Continue...]

Nayeli

No photo available.

Nayeli claims that she's better at meandering than writing about it, but her travels certainly give her plenty to blog about. She started out writing (and wandering) some years ago in her homeland of Texas and tries not to let her cowboy boots or taste for Tex-Mex define her. Currently somewhere beautiful, fun (and probably little bit scary) Nayeli is having a hard time imagining herself back in the States. She finds the opportunity to encourage other would-be meanderers through travel writing awfully tempting. If she does eventually tire of getting tossed around in fabulously chaotic situations, she will hang up her dancing shoes – or boots – and return to chilly New England for a permanent address, reliable web connection and that B.A. in philosophy from Harvard College. [Continue...]

Di Mackey, Diane Mackey

Di Mackey on Galata Tower in Istanbul, Turkey.

Di is a Kiwi woman living in Belgium. Her history surprises her when she looks back. A marriage saw her living in four very different regions within the South Island of New Zealand. The divorce left her free to wander in Istanbul. And now, well, there’s this guy who lured her into his Belgian world where she has time to write. [Visit womanwandering.blogspot.com]

The marriage was a time of raising her daughter, earning a belated university degree and becoming interested in the world of people and interviews. Climbers and people on the edges of the 9-5 society were two fascinations. The divorce allowed her to enter the Turkish private school world as an Ingilizce Ogretmeni or English teacher. And this Belgian life? It’s all about new beginnings.

Cole Haddon, Cole Haddon, Cole Haddon

Cole as parrot-head...

Cole Haddon is like a shark; swim or die, write or die. He scrapes by on almost no income just to keep from sinking. On the other hand, traveling the globe keeps his blood circulating. Half-Australian, he heads “home” to Sydney once a year, where he feels an undeniable connection to the land and an affinity for the people his mother long ago abandoned for McDonald’s and microwave meals. Luckily, travel writing and, well, writing in general has begun to monetarily supplement these and other journeys. You can read his music, film, and lifestyle writing regularly at Real Detroit Weekly, Rockrgrl, Venus, Ann Arbor Paper, Buzzine, and Sonic Slang, while his travel writing appears wherever editors are willing to publish it. Currently a Michigan resident, he’s heading to Hollywood this autumn as a precursor to the moves he one day hopes to make to London, Paris, Manhattan, and (finally) Sydney. Home.

Edna Mansouri, Edna Mansouri, Edna Mansouri

Edna, contemplating the Armenian countryside...

Edna Mansouri was born in Iran, lived in Austria and migrated to Canada. With an education in Modern Languages and a gift for the Arts she somehow ended up "web-ing". And a good thing too since she's been the design visionary behind the Margaux project since day one.