About Me

The Travel Writers Happy Hour is hosted by me, Jay Cooke. I'm the founder of Outwester Media, a travel and lifestyle media company. I'm also Commissioning Editor - US East for Lonely Planet. I manage book projects, create digital content, develop custom client content, write and edit features, and manage the "Travels with Lonely Planet" column, with King Features Syndicate. I developed New Orleans 4, winner of the 2007 SATW Gold Medal for guidebooks.

I've traveled through Europe, Asia, and North America working odd jobs and writing about travel, food, and culture.

I've slopped fish in Alaska, taught in Prague and Korea, driven a taxi in Texas, and bungee-jumped from a Swiss gondola for a Japanese adventure travel TV show.

I covered Southern California and the West for VIA magazine, the 3-million-circulation publication of California AAA. I hiked Italy, pickled kimchi, and traveled LA by subway for the San Francisco Examiner.

My writing and commentary been featured in National Geographic Traveler, Business Traveler, the San Francisco Chronicle, Cooking Light, Wired, Traveler's Tales, The New York Times, and others.

I teach Introduction to Travel Writing, Travel Writing Boot Camp, and more live and online journalism classes for Mediabistro.com.

In the 1990s I landed in San Francisco for a two-week vacation now going on ten years.