Essays & Articles
FEATURED ESSAYS
“Queen of the Stone Age – My love affair with Wales’ megaliths,” The Guardian, Sunday 3 October 2021
“Cooking Backwards,” Guernica, May 2021.
“The AElfgyva Syndrome and the Erasure of Women’s Stories,” Ms. Magazine, January 2021.
“Shedding Light” (Graphic Essay), Guernica, November, 2020.
“Fleeting Fossils” (Graphic Essay), Pangyrus, November, 2020.
“Coincidence,” The Harvard Review, December, 2017.
“The Dusk Series of Images” (Graphic Essay) The Lampeter Review, Issue 14, December, 2016.
“Erosion” (Graphic Essay), Lumina Online Issue No. 3, March 2015.
“Flow” (Graphic Essay), Slab Issue No. 9, Spring, 2014. A Notable Essay of 2015 in the Best American Essay Series.
“Dreaming in Welsh,” The Paris Review Daily, 18 Sept. 2012.
“Daydream Believer,” The Paris Review Daily, 15 November, 2012.
“The Witch and the Poet,” serialized in three parts in The Paris Review Daily, 21-23 November, 2012.
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
“ThunderStick,” The Paris Review Daily, 14 January 2013.
“Car Trouble,” The Paris Review Daily, 27-28 March, 2013.
• Part 1
• Part 2
Anthology: “Riding on Two Trains: Pamela Petro Confronts Her Demons on the Coast Starlight,” in Sunrise on the Southbound Sleeper: The New Telegraph Book of Great Railway Journeys, Aurum, London, 2011.
“Removed Person,” The Wall Street Journal.com, International Edition (Op-ed essay), 13 September, 2010.
“Romanced by the Stone,” The Sunday New York Times, Backpage Travel Essay, 15 July 2001.
“A Game Plan for the Road — Televised Sports,” The Sunday New York Times, Backpage Essay, 1 December 2002.
“Paying Attention in Quercy,” Gastronomica, Winter, 2009.
“Jim Magee’s Hill: On Rediscovering Awe in El Paso” Granta Magazine, July, 2008.
“The Hipster of Joy Street,” (profile of Beat poet John Wieners), Boston College Magazine, Fall 2000. Reprinted in Beat Scene, No. 50, Spring 2006.
“Ambivalent Autonomy” (Devolution in Wales), The Atlantic Monthly, April, 1999.
“Books as Works of Art” (Artist’s Books), The Atlantic Monthly, October 1990.
Pamela has written frequently since 1992 for the Welsh literary journal PLANET which is currently archiving issues online.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Pamela’s articles — mostly about travel, but also about art, literature, contemporary events — have appeared in lots of newspapers and magazines. Among other things, she has written about hiking hot lava on an erupting volcano, the northern lights, the tombs of Malta, losing her passport (twice), wine-making in southern Brazil, and New Jersey, her home state. Here are a few of her favorites articles, by category:
WALES –
“Hiraeth for Beginners,” Visit Wales Blog, 2011. Guest-author series of 15 blog posts.
“Wales, The Greenest Place on Earth,” (Wales and Sustainability), The Washington Post, 21 March, 2010.
“The Eloquent Stones of Wales,” The Sunday New York Times, 30 May 1999. Winner of the Bedford Pace Award for Best Travel Writing on Britain, 2000.
“Around the Bend in Wales,” The Sunday Washington Post, 27 August 1995.
“Walking a Welsh Hero’s Trail,” The Sunday New York Times, 19 May 1995.
“Footloose on the Byways of Wales,” The Sunday New York Times, April 23, 1989.
TRAVEL IN THE AMERICAS – Articles for The Daily Telegraph in London:
“Inhotim: A Brazilian Versailles for the 21st Century,” 26 October 2012.
“On the Road in Search of Jack Kerouac,” (Gatineau, Quebec and Denver, Colorado), 5 October 2012.
Grand Canyon Artist in Residence Blog Series:
“The Art of the Grand Canyon,” 2 February 2011.
“Savoring the Earthbound Magic,” (Train Travel on the Coast Starlight, from Seattle to Los Angeles), 8 January 2011.
“The Rich Palette of Puerto Rico,” 24 March 2009.
“Arctic Cruise: The Bear Necessities,” The Daily Telegraph, 9 May 2008.
“New Mexico’s Wondrous Sky,” (30th Anniversary of Walter De Maria’s Lightning Field), 28 July 2007.
“The Lights Fantastic,” (Northern Lights in Yellowknife, Canada), 11 February 2006.
“It’s a Great Place—And I’m Not Joking,” (New Jersey), 30 July 2005.
“Sun, Scene, and Sand,” (Rio de Janeiro), 4 June 2005.
“The Hot New Thing…Volcano Tourism,” for The Sunday Telegraph Supplement, UltraTravel, Summer 2005.
“Bonjour — ‘ave a Nice Day,” February 2004.
“Chicago the Wind-Free Way,” 10 January 2004.
MISCELLANEOUS
“Perfection’s Dark Side,” Smith Alumnae Quarterly, Summer 2008.
“The Bayeux Tapestry As Guide,” The Sunday New York Times, March 11, 2001.
“Ancient Tombs in Timeless Landscapes,” (Dolmens in Southwest France), The Sunday New York Times, 13 October 2002.
“Of Hills and Tunnels, (And Everything in Between),” An all-issue Traveler’s Tale of Brown University, February, 1995.