Ebony Walden on the Travel Memoir

This week we’re honoring the power of the travel memoir, which is a popular subgenre of memoir—and a place where exploration meets self-discovery. The act of travel in fact has much in common with writing memoir, as both pursuits push you outside your comfort zone, and both invite self-interrogation. Not to mention, memoir-writing itself is a form of travel—to your past, into the recesses of personal experience, and into memory. So even if you’re not a travel writer, there’s much to be learned from an episode about the travel memoir. For Memoir Milestones this week, we’re celebrating Lisa Cheek, who has a brand new “mostly true” memoir out called THE BIG DAY: Saying "I Do" Only to Discover I Didn't. Listen in to find out why you should buy this book! Ebony Walden is an author, filmmaker, and speaker who has traveled to nearly fifty countries and all fifty US states. She is the founder of Ebony Walden Consulting, a racial equity–focused consulting firm, and the creator of Black Beyond Borders, a documentary series and podcast exploring culture, creativity, connection, and cuisine across the African diaspora. In 2025, she won the LA Independent Women Film Award for Best Web Series-Pilot. The series is also an official selection of the Virginia Black Film Festival and has several planned festival screenings in 2026. Ebony also writes Beyond Borders, a weekly Substack newsletter on travel and transformation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.