Congratulations to Encounters Contributor Joel Carillet

By Nesreen | April 5th, 2008 | No Comments

When we put Encounters together, Jim and I were already sure that we had found some pretty talented writers who shared with us an ethos of what travel should be about.

Our publishers, Solas House and Travelers’ Tales, evidently agree. On Feb. 28, Encounters Contributor Joel Carillet’s story “Red Lights and a Rose,” was awarded the Solas Awards Best Travel Story of the Year. We’re delighted by news of his success! Congratulations Joel!

We first learned about Joel Carillet when he submitted “Half Truths and Olive Trees,” for our review. We loved the story, of course, and you can find it in our collection. For those of you who have stopped tuning into the Israel-Palestine conflict “Half Truths and Olive Trees” will give you reason to reconsider. It tells about a day that Palestinians and Israelis got together to build a structure that would ultimately serve as a site of reconciliation for these two divided peoples. His story is uplifting without being maudlin and it is heroic in its efforts to get us to listen to and see the conflict again, but with new insight and perspective.

After having briefly met Joel, I can tell you that he has seen a lot during his travels that would have caused me to question the decency of humanity. Somehow Joel manages to rise above that tendency, which may be a testament to his own personal faith. So when you read “Half Truths” know that you are reading words from someone who has been to war zones, and has witnessed great distress, desperation, fury and poverty. Knowing that, you are bound to respect the words in “Half Truths” that much more.