New York, N.Y. (Dec. 8, 2014) – The New York Travel Writers Association (NYTWA), with the help of Family Travel Forum (FTF), has awarded 18-year-old Megha Majumder of Plainview, N.Y. a $500 scholarship for her essay “A Love Affair With the City of Love.” FTF awards scholarships and prizes for essays by 13-to-18-year-olds enrolled in junior high, high school, or home school programs in the U.S., Canada, or American schools abroad. For its part, NYTWA elected to focus on the talent within 100 miles of New York City, since that is also one of the criteria for eligibility to join the association.
FTF’s editors judged the preliminary rounds before presenting NYTWA with the 10 best essays from teens living in the Greater New York City region. At that point, four seasoned NYTWA members — About.com Honeymoons/Romantic Travel editor Susan Breslow, former New York Times Practical Traveler columnist Betsy Wade, Time Out guidebook author Richard Koss, and freelance travel writer and editor Gail Harrington — selected the final scholarship winner.
“NYTWA is very pleased to join FTF in its efforts to promote travel writing among teenagers,” said Roger Cox, president of NYTWA. “As professional travel journalists, we value the skills good travel writing demands, including keen observation, empathy, an emotional commitment to the subject, and the power to craft an engaging story. The reader tags along, transported by the writer’s words to some far-flung corner of the globe or perhaps a local neighborhood and made to feel why it matters.”
That is something all of the finalists managed to do. Majumder took her readers to Paris, her Paris, in a collection of vignettes about the places she loved, none more so than Shakespeare and Company bookstore, a place she describes as “rows and rows of beautiful vintage books, a typewriter to write poems, old divans, wooden beams, creaky floorboards, an hundred-year-old piano,” a venue she loved, she writes, because “everything there stimulates creativity.”
In offering a scholarship, NYTWA hoped, too, to “stimulate creativity.” A link to her winning essay is posted on the NYTWA website at www.nytwa.info as well as on FTF’s site at MyFamilyTravels.com.
About The New York Travel Writers Association (NYTWA)
The non-profit New York Travel Writers Association (NYTWA) was established in 1946 to provide a meeting place and forum for journalists in the Greater New York area who are actively engaged in writing, broadcasting, televising, or editing travel news and features. NYTWA promotes responsible journalism and provides professional support and development for its members. To learn more, please visit www.nytwa.info. Follow NYTWA on Facebook and Twitter @NYTWA_PROS.
About Family Travel Forum (FTF)
Family Travel Forum (FTF) has been the trusted vacation planning resource for global travel with kids and grandkids since 1996. FTF’s expert and community content has been seen on Disney’s Family.com and other sites, in “The Complete Idiots Guide to the Best Family Destinations,” “Amazing Places to Take Your Kids in North America” and by millions of traveling families. In addition to co-hosting the annual TMS Family Travel Summit and conferences, FTF ventures include the “The Family Vacationist” blog and e-alert, and Family Travel Consulting to the trade in partnership with Taking the Kids.
###
Dear Reader: This page may contain affiliate links which may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Our independent journalism is not influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative unless it is clearly marked as sponsored content. As travel products change, please be sure to reconfirm all details and stay up to date with current events to ensure a safe and successful trip.
