On Newstands Now!

In what I suspect will be almost the very last time I have any excuse to blow my own horn with regard to Walking to Guantánamo, I am pleased to toot that the eminent academic journal Studies in Travel Writing has a special issue devoted to Cuba out right now.  My own name appears in its pages with alarming frequency. The journal, as far as I know the only one of its kind devoted to the genre I practice, one I often have difficulty explaining to people--so, you wrote a kind of a guidebook?--includes in the current issue a lengthy conversation between Peter Hulme and myself, two long excerpts from the book, and a review. I suspect I've seen the last of the last of these, although I haven't yet seen this last one, if you see what what I mean, but even if I've been raked over the coals I'll take what I can get at this point; not too many people review books three years after their publication.

In case they don't carry it down at your corner bodega, you can order your special commemorative edition here, all the way from Nottingham. Or at least look at the table of contents.

Walking to Guantánamo in Red Hook

Short notice, I know, for all but the most rabid blog-followers, but an exhibition of the photographs I took while walking across Cuba in the year 2000 opens tonight, Friday, September 17th at Sunny's in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It promises to be a fabulous evening. From 8PM on at Sunny's, 253 Conover Street in Brooklyn 11231. I hope to see you there!

For those who can't make it, the show will be up until approximately November 1st during Sunny's irregular opening hours (Weds., Fri., and Sattidee evenings from about 6PM onwards).

Walking to Williamsburg

Ben Anastas and I will be reading on Thursday, April 29th, at the fabulous Pete's Candy Store, at 709 Lorimer Street in beyond-trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This is my first area appearance in some time, and since I have fantasies of disappearing soon to begin another project almost as unlikely as walking across Cuba, it would be wonderful if you could join me.

Pete's is a comfortable and conveniently located bar that has been hosting one of Brooklyn's very best reading series for over nine years. Cold beer and good books guaranteed. That's at 7:30 PM.

If you are the rare person who is reading this blog and still has no idea that I wrote a book called Walking to Guantánamo, I have a website about the book HERE.

Come on down to New Orleans...

Walking to Guantánamo, not the book, but the photography exhibit, opens January 9th at the Antenna Gallery in the New Orleans Bywater at 3161 Burgundy Street. Hope to see you there!

Help make me legal!

Let's get this busted down automobile of a Cuba policy fixed once and for all!


It's probably too late for me, as this proposed law is unlikely to protect retroactively past violators of the Trading with the Enemy Act, but there is a chance to make Cuba travel legal coming before Congress right now. In a rare antarcticiana diversion into political advocacy, I quote at length from today's junk mail:

Great News! We now have legislation in the House of Representatives calling for an end to the travel ban on Cuba for ALL Americans.

This will mean "Travel for All" instead of "Travel for None" or even "Travel for Some."

Take action now and ask your representative to co-sponsor H.R. 874. The purpose of H.R. 874 is "To allow travel between the United States and Cuba" - for all Americans, no exceptions.

It was introduced by Representatives Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), along with these original co-sponsors: Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro [CT-3], Rep. Donna F. Edwards [MD-4], Rep. Jo Ann Emerson [MO-8], Rep. Sam Farr [CA-17], Rep. James P. McGovern [MA-3], Rep. Jerry Moran [KS-1], Rep. Ron Paul [TX-14]

You can read the full text of H.R. 874 here.

Please call your Representative today: Capitol Switchboard number: (202) 224-3121 or find your Representative's number here.


The message: · Please co-sponsor H.R. 874, the Delahunt-Flake bill "To allow travel between the United States and Cuba." · H.R. 874 calls for lifting travel restrictions to Cuba for ALL Americans, restoring our right as citizens of the United States to travel freely, and takes a giant step toward restoring our country's reputation in Latin America and the world. ·

(This will mean "Travel for All" instead of "Travel for None" or even "Travel for Some." To co-sponsor H.R. 874 please contact either Cliff Stammerman in Rep. Delahunt's office or Chandler Morse in Rep. Flake's office.)


All photographs from the Walking to Guantánamo project taken while traveling illegally in Cuba. I was only exercising my right to pursue happiness.

814 Edgewood Avenue, Atlanta, GA

Walking to Atlanta

Walking to Guantánamo, the photographs, opened last night at Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta. Despite the Montreal style winter temperatures there was a fabulous turnout.

Better pictures of the show itself to follow, once I get the camera up on a tripod. It is an incredible space, with pristine white panels floating in front of the unretouched brick walls of a hundred-year old carriage house.
Big John and Mom flew down to Atlanta for the evening. (Mom not pictured).

Here is a picture of one person actually looking at the photographs.

Mustard is the "it" color for winter '09. Note Big John's shirt, two images above, and Laura's scarf.

John "Mr. Suave" Otte

Matt Chenoweth of Atlanta rock act the Goldest, rediscovered on facebook 26 years after my Princeton High School graduation, chatting with Ms. Mustard and master mojito-slinger Alison "177" Mayer, who provided a punch-bowl full of a fresh-ginger mojito variant for the thirsty masses.

Highest price ever paid for a book!

A high-net-worth individual has paid the most elevated price ever recorded for a book, an archaic analog media delivery device consisting of a number of sheets of paper printed with words loosely organized around a particular topic, then bound together with glue, between boards. The private collector, a resident of Africa who chooses to remain anonymous, handed over the staggering sum of one hundred and eighty billion dollars for an autographed example of Walking to Guantánamo, the chronicle of Richard Fleming's long schlep across the island of Cuba. Asked to comment on the motivations behind this extraordinary purchase, the proud owner of the volume, replying through a spokesperson, said only that "it was sold out again on Amazon, and what's more, nobody will ship to Harare anyway."

How I'm Rollin'...
With all the billions.

Stumbling to Guantánamo

In case you missed my debut on national public radio, you can still give a listen, thanks to the magic of the internet.

And by the way, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We take a break from our regularly scheduled election coverage...

to bring you the self-aggrandizing news that Andrea Gollin, writing in Sunday's Miami Herald, calls Walking to Guantánamo "a fascinating, wry, vividly detailed and elegantly written account of a trip that no one else is likely to take."

Who are you calling a sellout?

I don't know if it is because of the spread on the book in the current Paper magazine, or because of all the nice things the gringo in Bolivia said about me, but after only forty-eight hours on sale my book is already sold out at Amazon. Don't worry, you can still order it; they'll get more, and it is also available direct from my publisher.

And even more honest if the light is flattering...

Calling Walking to Guantánamo "compelling and entertaining," in his review for the Library Journal, (link has gone dead; you'll just have to take my word for it) Lee Arnold goes on to write that Fleming (that's me) "is brutally honest, even when it shows him in an unflattering light."

Walking to Guantánamo, the website

My extensive paid network of publicists, personality management consultants, behavioral stylists, market researchers, ego massage therapists, trompe l'oeil physique enhancement technicians, and, of course, my social graces counselor, all agree on one thing: the budding first-time author must have a glamorous and elegant website dedicated to promoting their book. (Your comments, suggestions, and purchases are welcome.)

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Be the first one on your block... MORE UPDATED

With all the pride of a father, and the labor agonies of a mother, I am inordinately pleased to announce that my first book, Walking to Guantánamo, is finally available for advance purchase.

Those who have already read it have been embarrassing me with their praise and adulation for months, so that even without having sold a single copy I have become an insufferably self-absorbed bundle of arrogance. As this trend accelerates, you may find that the only remnants left of my formerly humble and winning personality are those captured in the pages of Walking to Guantánamo. For this reason alone I urge you to BUY IT HERE, NOW. The book will be delivered promptly, as soon as it is released, on October 1st.

UPDATE: Early reports trickling in from anxious buyers indicate that all web functions may not actually be fully operational as yet. Please stand by. We have experts and technicians feverishly working to remedy the situation. We apologize for the delay.

MORE UPDATED: These reports of frustrating and incomplete purchases notwithstanding, this morning I successfully managed to buy my own book online, using the above link, despite inventing a fictitious Commons books account for one "F. Castro Ruiz," only known address "poste restante," at a post office in Coral Gables. This makes me hopeful that any early difficulties may by now have been ironed out. Should you continue to find yourself stymied in your efforts to own this important piece of literary history, please be so kind as to note the details of any shopping discomforts you have suffered, right here, in the comments section of this blog.

Shameless self-promotion dept.

Regular readers of these pages may be aware that some years ago in a misguided quest for adventure I spent some months strolling, stumbling and cycling my way along the length of the island of Cuba, a journey much more epic in its conception than in its realization. Those were in the pre-blogging days, and as I made my way through the last bastion of socialism I jotted down my thoughts and experiences, using an actual pen, and paper. To my delight I may now report that I have accepted an offer from a courageous and visionary publisher to bring those tortured scribbles before the public eye in the form of a travelogue, my first book, to be titled Walking to Guantánamo. The contract has been signed.

Antarcticiana, this blog, will naturally from now on serve as nothing more than a relentless and aggressive promotional vehicle for the forthcoming volume.