Introducing Chasing Paradise: A Hitchhiker’s Search for Home in a World At War With Itself

In Chasing Paradise, “[Chris Benjamin] skillfully recreates conversations in his memoir, capturing people’s voices, opinions and thoughts. He writes of the oddities of organic food production, walking through the aftermath of a massive, clear-cut forest, and artist hippie communes.”
–Allison Lawlor, The Chronicle Herald

“…original in tone – droll, serious, and loving, of the world, and its wacky and wonderful people – and expansive in subject matter.”
–Marjorie Simmins, memoirist and author of Memoir: Conversations and Craft

In May, 2001, In hitchhiked across Canada and volunteered on organic farms in British Columbia. I was in search of a good home, love and community, and perhaps a source of income to pay off my student loans.

In September, 9/11 happened. Naively I went ahead with my plans to travel into and through the United States of America. This memoir from Pottersfield Publishing is based on the detailed journals I kept at that time, hitching and Greyhounding through North America, winding up in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The journals consisted mainly of what people said to me: those who picked me up and the bus riders I encountered – including soldiers and kids fresh from jail.

Chasing Paradise is in bookstores now! Also available online at Nimbus.