I started this website in 2011, after the Great Tohoku Earthquake unleashed a tsunami of historic proportions that swept inland and wreaked unimaginable devastation along Japan’s northern coast. I felt helpless, and writing my first post, “Reflections on Japan,” seemed the best way to deal with the sadness. In the end, more than 18,000 lives were lost and the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster is ongoing.
Since then I’ve spent a fair amount of time traveling in Tohoku, a vast region north of Tokyo comprised of six sprawling prefectures. Articles I’ve written based on my trips include those on Hiraizumi for BBC, Iwate and Yamagata prefectures for frommers.com, the comeback of Fukushima Prefecture for CNN, and the samurai town of Kakunodate for gonomad.com. I’ve also written blogs on haiku poet Basho‘s travels to the deep north and the fishing village of Kamaishi.
Although my blogs lean heavily toward Japan, I pretty much write about every place I go, from Argentina to Spain to Dominica to Maine. It keeps me out of trouble. Most of the time.
At any rate, TravelReiber won honorable mention (that is, fourth place) in the Society of American Travel Writers writers competition. Not too shabby for a website I set up and maintain myself, posting in between articles I write for other publications (while those publications won’t make me rich, they’re generally better than the $0 I make on this blog because I don’t sponsor advertisements).
This is the notification I received from SATW:
 November 22, 2024 Dear Beth Reiber: On behalf of the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, congratulations! You are a winner or have submitted a winning entry in the prestigious SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. Winners were announced on November 13 at the SATW 2024 Convention in Istanbul, Turkey. There were 1,371 entries in 30 categories in our 40th competition. The University of Missouri School of Journalism oversaw the judging. Results are posted at www.satwf.com, where you will find a news release providing the list of winners . You also can view all the winning work by clicking through to our “Winners Gallery” under the heading “Lowell Thomas Competition” where you can follow the table of contents. The gallery shows the list of categories that you can click to see the results, including the judges’ comments and links to the entries. We also provide a link to our video of the winning entries. We are proud to honor your outstanding work. Please use this occasion to trumpet your success and draw attention to the best of what travel journalists do: serving their readers with honest, ethical, accurate, responsible accounts and pictures of the world and its inhabitants. In writing about the awards, please credit the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, or simply SATW Foundation, as the competition sponsor. The 2024 awards and checks (as applicable) will be sent by separate mail. Important: Please email your mailing address as soon as possible to the Foundation administrator, Victoria Larson, Victoria@satwf.com. We need a street address for shipping the awards. Checks can go to a PO box. The Foundation this year will distribute more than $25,000 in prize money. Contributions by Gold Supporter Carnival Corp. and other donors make these prizes possible. If you have questions, please contact Victoria Larson, Victoria@satwf.com or (917) 678-7689. We’re on Facebook and LinkedIn at SATW Foundation, so please follow us for news, updates and reactions. You are welcome to download the attached 2024 Winner’s Seal and use it on your websites or email signatures. Again, our congratulations and best wishes, Catharine M. Hamm President The sustainability of the annual SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition is made possible by a generous contribution from Gold Supporter Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise company with a portfolio of brands. Its contribution helps make the prizes possible and supports the future of quality travel media. |
As you can see, there were 1,371 entries and 30 categories for submission. I’ll never know whether the travel blog category that won me fourth place had more than four submissions.
As a way to round this up, here are some photos I’ve taken over the years; actually I think my photographs are the spices to my words.
