Travels in Vermeer
A Memoir
Michael White

Longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award in Nonfiction

Part travelogue, part soul-searching investigation into romantic love and intimate discourse on art, this erudite and lyrical memoir encompasses the author’s past—his difficult youth, stint in the Navy, alcoholism, and the early death of his first wife—and ends with his finding grace and transformation through deeply affecting encounters with the paintings of Vermeer, an artist obsessed with romance and the inner life, who has captivated millions, from the seventeenth century until now.

“All the sorrow of love is compressed into White’s memoir.  But so, too, is all the consolation of art. Nothing I’ve read...suggests so eloquently what [Vermeer's paintings] hold for a contemporary viewer…. Figures it took a poet to get it this beautifully, thrillingly right.”
—Peter Trachtenberg

“[Travels in Vermeer] touches on the mysteries of seduction, loss, and the artistic impulse.  It shows how time can be interrupted.”
—Clyde Edgerton

“This book is a treasure and a guide. It is a type of healing for the intellect and the heart.”
—Rebecca Lee

Michael White is the author of four award-winning collections of poetry including Vermeer in Hell. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, and heads the creative writing department at UNC-Wilmington.

Paperback / $17.95 (Can $20.95) / ISBN 978-0-89255-437-9 / 178 pages / Memoir