Go: A Memoir of Movement

Go: A Memoir of Movement is collection of six stories exploring three trips Jesse O'Reilly-Conlin took between 2009 and 2016: South America (2009 to 2010) and Eastern Europe (2016). In it, he explores his evolving relationship to travel, what it has meant to him over the years, and why, after visiting 120 countries and at the age of thirty-eight, he still has as strong a desire to leave as he did at nineteen when he took his first international trip alone-to New Zealand and Australia. What has been his motivation? What, if anything, has he learned about himself or the world? Why must he continue to depart again and again? What has he sacrificed to live a life of movement?

In these post-pandemic times, with the travel industry roaring back to life, it's pertinent to ask why we travel. How can we make travel more ethical, its relationships less hierarchal and more horizontal?

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Jesse O’Reilly-Conlin works as an editor at Demeter Press, an Ontario-based publishing house, as well as a freelance editor. He has a bachelor degree in history and English, a MA in history (both from York University, Toronto), a MFA in creative nonfiction (University of King’s College, Halifax), and MA in refugee protection and forced migration studies (University of London. His writing has appeared in Cargo Lit Mag, Cold Noon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures, and Folio Magazine. For Folio, his story “Istanbul Gone” won the journal’s 2018 Editor’s Prize for nonfiction. This is his first book.