Susan Harlan

Susan Harlan is an English professor at Wake Forest University whose non-academic writing focuses on the intersections between place, objects, and memory. Her online travel diary Born on a Train, which narrates a long-haul Amtrak trip she undertook in full 1950s dress—complete with hats and vintage luggage—is about nostalgia for old-school train travel (www.bornonatrain.com).

Writing on Public Books

Essays

Monsieur Zierold’s Guide to Paris

This is the latest installment of Public Streets, a biweekly urban observations series curated by Ellis Avery. The typed index card in Fielding’s 1956-57 Travel Guide to Europe smells old, and its edges are yellowed. It is a note, to someone. It is part of Paris on a card. The book’s former owner must have […]