Amanda Castleman's Page

Freelance Journalist Amanda Castleman specializes in travel, adventure, the environment and women's issues. Her writing and photography have appeared in Outside, The International Herald Tribune, MSNBC.com, Wired, Salon, Italy Daily, Sport Diver, Alaska Airlines Magazine and The Athens News, as well as the UK's BBC, Guardian and Mail on Sunday. Despite her yoga-and-yogurt tendencies, she's a former wilderness guide. Her Honduras scuba article won a 2007 Lowell Thomas award (travel writing's ersatz Pulitzer).

Amanda has contributed to 30-odd books, including Greece, A Love Story and Rome in Detail, as well as titles for National Geographic, Frommer's, Michelin, DK Eyewitness, Time Out and Rough Guides.

American by birth, this author spent eight years in Europe. She lived on a traditional narrowboat, moored on the Oxford Canal in England. She also endured two years swilling espresso in Italy, as a Visiting Writer at the American Academy in Rome, then ranged further afield to Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. Seattle, her native city in the Pacific Northwest, is once again her home base. Her recent trips include England, Italy, Thailand, Las Vegas, Samoa, Guyana, Utah and French Polynesia, as well as regional travel.

She has also worked as an editor, staff writer, graphic and web designer. Amanda now teaches through Writers.com, the Richard Hugo House and Travel Writing Class.com, which next offers a week-long workshop in Rome, spring 2012. Bring her an apple and she'll reveal the best espresso in the Eternal City...