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Abstract
Galway(s) is a collection of personal essays that explores the city of Galway, Ireland, each essay grounded in a specific place in Galway that allows me to investigate the ideas and associations those places stir up. Galway(s) uses Michel de Montaigne's essay form to investigate the many facets of place, from history and culture, to geography and geology, to the natural and built environments. The portrayal of Galway is flavored by my choice to travel alone, a naturally limited view that offers a certain reading to the place given my gender, race, class, and my American passport. If the purpose of travel is to engage as many boundaries as possible (cultural, societal, geographical, artistic), then the female point of view on travel and travel writing brings forward a distinctly unique perspective. Galway(s) contributes to the conversation of gender(ing) and travel writing, the role of the essay form in the larger genre of nonfiction, and further complicates the intersection of place-nature-travel writing, especially that written by women. In this way, Galway(s) is an example of active pursuit of a curiosity, what it takes to entertain and move inside that curiosity, and the movement on the page needed to make that curiosity matter to readers.
