Let me just start by saying that Amtrack is by and far the best way to travel. Cars are dangerous and driving is boring. Planes make you feel like a criminal if you bring your own toothpaste any more because some 12-year-old figured out how to make a bomb with his mom's Colgate. Trains are the safest, most interesting way to travel the country. The Amtrak staff is always extremely nice, the view is killer and the nostalgia is undeniable.
And thanks to some guy named Zach Seward and the power of Twitter, writers can now get a free ride. It appears Seward hit the Tweet lines with his pal Jessica Gross and convinced Amtrak to give her the first "writer's residency" from New York to Chicago. This comes as a surprise since the passenger rail system is not underfunded and not very profitable, but hey Gross wasn't asking questions. Apparently, the residency was completely free. According to Gross, all Amtrak asked was that she send out a few tweets while she was traveling, and do an interview for the company's blog at the end of her trip.
How awesome. I don't know what it is about the train but it definitely illicits the most romantic, creative energy — better than a coffee shop on a rainy day. I'm thinking specifically of a certain impassioned love letter I was inspired to write to a pretty girl aboard a Northbound train in Oregon and I can only imagine cranking away at a screenplay or novel with this beautiful country rolling on by.
Stay tuned to see how this develops. It seems Alexander Chee has the next residency lined up from NYC to Portland.
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