About This Blog

Welcome to The Blog of Kevin Dolgin. This should not be confused with McSweeney’s, where Kevin Dolgin Tells You About Places You Should Go. Nor is this the Web Site of Kevin Dolgin, where you can find more about the mysterious author with the lean, sarcastic prose.

This is The Blog of Kevin Dolgin. It’s a “NewsBlog.” Specifically, we are focused on bringing you news about intelligent travel commentary on the Internet. Each day, we surf the net, looking for the best pieces of literary travel writing, and highlight them here on the blog.

Why? To celebrate publication of The Book of Kevin Dolgin, also known as The Third Tower Up from the Road, published by Jeffrey Goldman and the sharp-eyed talent-spotters at Santa Monica Press who know a good travelogue when they read one.

The Third Tower Up from the Road is a collection of Kevin Dolgin’s columns from McSweeney’s. It’s not your father’s travelogue — though it could be, if you bought him a copy, which would be a good thing to do. Because this travel book speaks to Men and Sons and Dads and Boys in its love of weapons, dragons, boats, and ruins — all told with the willingness to stick your hand into a dark recess just to see what’s in there.

The Blog of Kevin Dolgin is not written exclusively by Kevin Dolgin but by a team of writers and editors hired to produce The News for Kevin Dolgin. Chief among them is Pat Hartman, longtime editor of SALON: A Journal of Aesthetics. She has just the right temperament for a blog about transcending borders both real and self-imposed. Pat’s views, along with those of any of the writers on The Blog of Kevin Dolgin (except Kevin Dolgin), do not necessarily reflect the views of Kevin Dolgin.

Why, you may ask, isn’t Kevin Dolgin writing more on The Blog of Kevin Dolgin? Truth be told, Kevin is an old-fashioned guy and this is his first blog (he originally thought we said ‘frog’ and he responded, strangely, in
Japanese). Kevin is busy covering the whole world for McSweeney’s, so we cover everyone else on the literary travel beat and point out all their best pieces here on the blog.

Kevin is enthusiastic about having a place where different kinds of travel writing are explored, presented and discussed. He hired us to look around and discover good sources of literary travel writing, whether they come from The Third Tower Up from the Road or from other authors, and present them here for you.

We welcome your comments and invite your questions, your criticism, and, if we earn it, your praise.

Thanks for Visiting,
STEVE O’KEEFE
The Blogmaster of Kevin Dolgin