Write Like A Honey Badger (WLHB) only employs very veteran, hardcore writers to teach — ones eager to give back to the industry, helping talented, diverse voices emerge and shine. Our instructors touch upon trends in the trade and literary best-practices. But they also keep the workshops grounded in hard-won insider advice that boosts each student a few rungs up the career ladder.
Don’t guess at what works. Learn the tactics of full-time, thriving freelancers, who treat travel and lifestyle journalism as a serious business!
Not sure which instructor, course or coaching package suits you best? Please reach out to info@writelikeahoneybadger.com. We are always happy to advise.
FOUNDER AMANDA CASTLEMAN
Writer and Photographer Amanda Castleman specializes in travel, adventure, nature, animals and the environment. Her work has appeared in Afar, Outside, Sierra, Islands, Wired, Salon, BBC Travel, Delta Sky, Hemispheres, Sport Diver, Coastal Living, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light and The International Herald Tribune, as well as the Guardian and Sunday Express. Despite her yoga-and-yogurt tendencies, she’s a former wilderness guide. Her Honduras scuba article won a Lowell Thomas award (travel writing’s ersatz Pulitzer).
Amanda has taught journalism and digital media since 2003. She pioneered online workshops that pushed beyond “travel the world for free” to dive deeply into the art and craft of reporting. She launched the first Travel Writing Master Class in 2011 and continue to offer it once or twice each year.
INSTRUCTOR ALEX LEVITON
Alex Leviton has been teaching and mentoring writers since she got her master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley in 2002. A longtime Lonely Planet veteran, she has authored more than three dozen titles for the guidebook giant. She also led Win a Week with a Lonely Planet Author competitions in Shanghai and Marrakech, and captained the World Nomad’s 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship in Berlin. Her latest book Explore Every Day is filled with 365 (+1) of her prompts for a more innovative life. She also reports on the topic for her Seattle Times Explore column Creativity at Work.
Her expertise comes from seeing the business from every angle. Alex was the founding Editorial Director of Gogobot.com (now Skyscanner), a series editor and creativity coach for The Guardian, and a travel journalist for USA Today. She started out in magazines and at an alt-newsweekly, co-wrote an app (Umbria Slow), and she’s currently drafting a speculative fiction novel while freelancing full-time.
Alex has now coached writers, businesspeople, and creatives for almost 20 years. She also uses her methodology in creativity workshops, with corporate clients, and in a juvenile psychiatric hospital.
Learn more here.
INSTRUCTOR NAOMI TOMKY
Award-winning food and travel writer Naomi Tomky uses her unrelenting enthusiasm for eating everything to propel herself around the world. From trailing a street food hawker in Singapore to navigating the ancient roads of the Maya jungle, she explores the globe with a hungry eye—and mouth. Her work appears in publications such as The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Saveur, Food & Wine, and more. She was included in the 2017 edition of Best Food Writing and has won an Association of Food Journalists Best Food and Travel Award, and contributed to numerous cookbooks and guidebooks. Her own cookbook, The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook, comes out in November 2019.
Naomi spent a decade in the marketing industry and held various consulting roles (editing, social media, and more). She’s also taught food writing, travel writing, and pitching classes online and in-person since 2016. She offers private coaching to help move new and seasoned writers to the next level in their writing journeys.