Mark Orwoll
(Lowell Thomas Travel Writer of the Year Silver Award - 2025)
- Freelance Travel Writer, Freelance
- None, Freelance Journalist
- None, FREELANCE (HIGHBROW MAGAZINE)
New York
As seen in:
LinkedIn,
Yahoo Life,
Business Insider,
Los Angeles Times,
Slate,
Substack,
Traveller,
Audible Blog,
The Culture Trip,
Condé Nast Traveler
and
Covers:
Travel, food and drink, trains, international destinations, adventure, cruising, offbeat places, outdoors, cities, and the things that make a destination weird.
Doesn't Cover:
Interviews (except in context of a travelogue), cosmetics, fashion, news updates, reprinting a slideshow you wrote for your client. I'm an individual journalist, so don't have a set group of readers.
Writer of travel. Person of Interest. Notorious waterfront character.
Interview
Have you ever used a typewriter?
I started on a manual, graduated to an IBM Selectric.
How is social media changing news?
Readers are increasingly less likely to consider the source of their news, and believe any headline they come across, no matter how dubious.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Tintin.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
People often make life decisions (or just spend their money) based on what they read. So being a journalist carries a heavy responsibility.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Send me an email. If you don't know it already, contact me through my website, markorwoll.com
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
A 49-cent notepad that will fit into my shirt pocket and a Staples Auragel pen (10 for $4.99).
Why did you become a journalist?
I'm a "Watergate baby" who went to J-school in the 70s. I take travel writing as seriously as any form of journalism. I owe readers the truth
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
All of them. I take every assignment seriously. If I can't be proud of a story, I'm fortunately able to say I don't want the assignment.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Start small while you're shooting for the stars. Get a regular paying gig to keep you going. Write as if your words will be read in 50 years.
When's the best time to pitch you?
I check my email scrupulously first thing in the morning, so send me your pitch before I wake up!
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Any of them, when pitched face to face over two martinis. Seriously, when a pitch is based on my published work, it's good.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Glitter inside a mailed envelope. I ripped open the side of the envelope, blew into it to open it, and got glitter in my eyes, nose & mouth.
What's your favorite drink?
Martini (Hendrick's gin, extra dry, two stuffed olives).
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Playing music (mandolin, electric guitar, drums, keyboard, etc.) in my home recording studio.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Esquire, the New Yorker, Smithsonian.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.