Benjamin Taylor emphasizes the trans-formative power of keen perception in this excerpt from his lush travel memoir Naples Declared: A Walk Around The Bay, which The New Yorker’s Judith Thurman recently celebrated as one of 2012’s most compelling books.
Active within the graduate writing programs of The New School and Columbia University, Professor Taylor has authored two novels, Tales Out of School, winner of the Harold Ribalow Prize, and The Book of Getting Even, a 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Award winner and a 2008 Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of the Year.
Generous with his learning, Professor Taylor offers free recordings of his literary lectures–subjects range from Tolstoy to Munro to Roth–here, on his trove of a website.
Illustration by Julie Houts
