A Conversation with Nina Karnikowski

A quick chat with writer and traveler, Nina Karnikowski, who recently released her third book and memoir in late 2023, The Mindful Traveler. Nina has been a Trust and Travel workshop host, a long time inspiration on IG, and a beacon for the sustainable travel community. As we are currently on the quest to write our own books, we were particularly curious about the process, the past, and the choices she’s made to arrive here…

Trust & Travel: Can you remember the first time you connected your love for writing and travel? Were these always great passions of yours?
Nina: I have been writing ever since I could hold a pen, and have dreamt about making travel a bigger part of my life since I visited France for a month when I was 16. Whenever I travelled for leisure I’d scribble away in journals, but it wasn’t until a role as a travel writer came up at the media company I was working for 10 years ago that the two passions combined professionally. I felt as if I’d won the lottery when that happened. Even though I quickly discovered the reality of being a travel writer is far less glamorous and much harder work than one might imagine.

Tell us about a place you've visited that has had a great impact on you, how has that transmuted into your work?
Every place I’ve visited has impacted me in some way, and I firmly believe that every journey - or at least every good journey - we take is as much an internal one as it is external. If I had to name one, though, it would be India. My husband and I lived there for a year ten years ago, when I was just starting out as a travel writer. It’s impossible to describe how that year shaped me in just one short paragraph, but suffice it to say that it made me a far more compassionate and curious human being - both crucial elements for good writing. A close second would be Nepal, where I’ll be leading my first ever group trip in April 2024, a trek in the Everest region centered around mindfulness with World Expeditions.

Please tell us more. You know we love a good adventure.
I've curated something very special for the 12 women I'll be hosting over there, all centred around mindfulness and sustainability. For two weeks we'll be putting the idea of 'mindful travel' into action, hiking through the breathtaking Everest region (sometimes in complete silence), doing workshops on reflective writing and mindful photography, meeting with the founder of a women’s farming project and a Buddhist teacher, and more. All while staying in eco camps and lodges and a beautiful Nepali-owned boutique hotel. I'm counting down the days! I'll be hosting the same trip again in September, in case any of your readers want to join the next one.

Wow. That sounds incredible. Ok book talk… what challenges did you face when writing your first two books?
When writing Make a Living Living, the challenges were mostly around curation, finding exactly the right mix of people who were not only making a living doing work they loved, but who also came from diverse backgrounds, who weren’t privileged, and who had unique, inspiring messages to share with readers. With Go Lightly, the biggest challenge has come after creating the book and sharing it with the world. Post-launch, I had to walk my talk, and travel in a way that not only didn’t cause further damage to the planet, but that made the places I was visiting a bit better than when I arrived. The journey of discovering how to do that is ongoing, and has been the greatest adventure of my life so far.

Now tell me about writing The Mindful Traveler. How was this a different process? What challenges did you find? How long did it take?
I was given a very tight deadline by my Australian publisher for The Mindful Traveller; just over four months to write a 65,000 word manuscript. I needed to be disciplined, so I mapped out how much writing I’d need to do each day to deliver on time. Writing is a job like any other, and I very much believe you can't sit around and wait for ‘the muse’ to arrive. You need to get your bum in the seat and just start writing, even if you think what you’re writing is awful. You need to get something on the page, because nothing is more crippling than the blank page. And nothing is more invigorating than arriving at the page the next day to find something that’s not actually as awful as you thought, waiting for you.

The Mindful Traveller felt like my first book in many ways. It wasn't broken down into bite-sized pieces like my other books, so it was a challenge writing such an extended narrative. Also, being a memoir, I had to get very quiet and internal to access my deeper feelings and truths. I pawed through old journals to take myself back to past travels and experiences, and I took myself on a couple of self-created writer's retreats, so I could be completely alone with my thoughts and focus on getting the work done. That helped immensely.

What writing advice for someone looking down the path of their own memoir? Or were there any resources you found particularly helpful…
Tell the truth. That sounds simple, but it's very hard. I read Melissa Febos' wonderful book Body Work, which is all about writing personal narratives, while writing The Mindful Traveller. She writes about how she often has her writing students write something true, then write that same thing again, and again, and again, five times until they reach their deepest truth. We have to "punch through that false wall", she says, to create "a doorway into the truer and more interesting story." Truth is a layered thing, and we must tear off our masks and set aside our shame if we want to tell a story that will be true and beautiful. About 15 years ago I met one of my favourite authors DBC Pierre at a book signing, and when I asked him to inscribe one of his books with some advice for a budding writer, he wrote: "Write only those things you would be embarrased to admit and publish, then publish them." That nugget of wisdom has never failed me.

What drives your creativity? And how do you replenish it when you've run dry?
The natural world is my biggest inspiration these days. I try to make sure everything I do professionally and personally is in service of the natural world, so that future generations can have an abundant, beautiful planet to live on. I spend a lot of time in nature, hiking, swimming in the sea, or just sitting and looking at the trees and birds and sky. We protect what we love, so by surrounding ourselves with nature we’re more likely to fight for it.

What are some of those ultra-important life lessons you've picked up from travel?
The importance of simplicity is one, something I’ve learnt from many different cultures - from the nomads living on the steppe in Mongolia, to the Himba tribe in Namibia, both of whom live with only a few simple possessions but with very strong community and purpose - which are both key to living a good life.
The power of attention is another. When you travel, you are awake and alive in a way you rarely are at home. The more you travel, the more that attention seeps into your daily life at home and the more you start to realise that ‘ordinary' things can become extraordinary, simply by virtue of us paying them attention.

How do you create an environment where you can write and publish books, travel and still tend to your personal needs (family, relationships, health...)?
I don’t have children! That was meant to be a joke, but I suppose it isn’t really. These are choices I have made - to have a life rich in creativity and travel - and that has come at the expense of other things, such as having kids or tending more closely to relationships other than my marriage or very close friendships. I do feel my life is very balanced, though, and that’s because I guard my time closely. I travel far less now, a choice I made to both curb my emissions and to make every journey I take more meaningful: when I’m away, I’m completely focused on the trip, and when I’m home, I spend my time wisely. I love hiking and practicing yoga, I love writing and reading and having nourishing downtime with my husband and our dog, and so I say no to many things to make sure I’m doing these things and living my life, not the life anyone else thinks I should be living. I think we could all do that a little more.

Guard your time closely. I think that's the best advice for any writer. What are your biggest takeaways from the last 10+ years of writing and travel, what advice would you give to someone hoping to live a similar lifestyle?
My biggest takeaway is that you write your own script. We often think we’re making our own choices, but really we’re ‘choosing’ a career or an entire life that society has foisted upon us. So my advice, for anyone wanting to live their truth and to create a rich, fulfilling and purpose-filled life, would be to find a way to tune into that inner voice. I spend a lot of time doing that because it’s very important to me, and I mostly connect to that voice through walking and journaling every day. Through constant practice, I am now almost always in close contact with my true self. The self that tells me when to take risks, when I’m playing small, when it’s time to mix things up, when to say no or when to say a big, wild, delighted, open-hearted YES.

What is one moment in your life that you can point to and see things having gone a different way? A fork in the past that stands out?
My husband and I were about to buy a house we really couldn't afford, about 10 years ago now. He was working a job he didn't love, I didn't want to work more than I already was, and we were both deeply craving wild experience and travel more than anything else. So, last-minute, we didn't buy the expensive home. Instead, he took a job as an art director at GQ India and we moved to Mumbai for a year. That trip set the tone for a life that prioritised risk and romance over safety, and opening that escape hatch was the best decision we've ever made. 

Books as a life force. What books have shaped you as a reader and writer?Phenomenal by Leigh-Ann Henion, which I read just before I started out as a travel writer. It taught me about how, when we've lost ourselves, we can acitvely go searching for wonder, and rediscover our passion for life through travel and the natural world. That has been the major theme of my life ever since, and that book became a blueprint for The Mindful Traveller. Also, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. It’s a poetic bible for anyone wanting to move towards a more reciprocal relationship with the natural world, and understand the interconnectedness of all things, which have also become integral concepts in my life and work.

What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve just finished Blueback, a beautiful fable written by the Australian author Tim Winton, which has environmentalism and deep stewardship at its heart. It is inspiring all sorts of fertile ideas inside me. I am also still working my way through Lucianne Tonti’s new book Sundressed, which is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched deep dive into the regenerative future of fashion, that I’m now hopeful can become a reality one day soon.

What would you do if writing was taken away from you tomorrow?
I would tell stories verbally - because I am a storyteller, first and foremost. But, I would also be completely bereft, because the written word is what saves me and makes me feel sane and whole and free.

Ok, and last but not least at all, I've been freaking out for how much I love your deck of writing prompts. Please tell us about those so everyone can go grab one right now...

Thank you, that's wonderful to hear! I launched The Writer Within in mid-2023; it's a deck of 50 writing prompt cards that are similar to a deck of tarot cards but for journalling, to connect and inspire and transform. My aim with these is to get more people excited about this form of self-therapy, emptying their heads onto the page each morning as a way to orientate themselves in the world, to savour and amplify goodness, and to drop an anchor into the choppy waters of life.