Kim Grant
City Expert
Kim Grant grew up near Boston and began taking the commuter train into the city on weekends as soon as she could board trains alone. After landing her first guidebook gig the day after graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1984, she made a bee-line for Europe, where she traveled for a couple of years on $10 a day. When her money ran out, she settled (as much as moss settles on the proverbial rolling stone) in Boston's North End because it was the neighborhood that most closely resembled Europe. She began writing guidebooks in earnest in 1987. (Remember, the money had run out, but the travel bug still itched.) In need of permanent parking and photographic studio space in 1990, she bought a circa-1900 Victorian in Dorchester, Boston's largest, oldest, and most diverse neighborhood. Her garden is prolific, her fountain oh-so-modern, and her friends tried-and-true. Mildred, her tortoise cat, shares her life with birds.
These days Kim alternates guidebook authoring with being the Acquisitions Editor for Countryman Press (a division of WW Norton); photographing abstract black-and-white images (published under the imprint of Bindu Press); teaching T'ai Chi Chih (which she credits with heightening her creativity and intuition); growing Good Karma Publishing; and hiking, biking, and camping with her delightful partner.
She has appeared on CNN, written for National Geographic Traveler, and had photographs published in Vogue and Travel & Leisure, but it didn't change her personality measurably.
Kim is the author of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket: An Explorer's Guide and Hawaii: An Explorer's Guide; she is the coordinating author or co-author of Lonely Planet New England, Lonely Planet Southwest, Lonely Planet Hawaii, Lonely Planet Florida, and Best Places to Stay in New England. She is also a contributing editor and photographer for Insight New England and Insight Boston.
Her photographs appear in many Lonely Planet, Insight and Explorer's Guides, as well as regional and national travel magazines.
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Shonna Glenn
Photographer
Shonna Hammon Glenn and her husband followed a dream and moved from the East Coast to Hawaii in 1993 with nothing but two suitcases. Living only on love for adventure, they investigated every inch of the islands. Shonna has lived on Kauai, Maui, and Oahu. Her husband became a pilot and she a writer, developing her own local educational character, Diamond Head Kitty. Together they started their own commercial construction company. Now, with two young girls, each day she learns more and more about the islands through their young eyes. She is ever on the lookout for enriching children's programs.
Buying her first "real" camera after the birth of her first daughter in the spring of 2000, Shonna is now a freelance photographer and winner of the 2005 Oahu Arts Center’s The Irene Lee Loui Award for a Young Emerging Artist. Her work has been featured in national magazines as well as local galleries.
Because Shonna never lost her southern accent from growing up in the Midwest, you may spot her enjoying her days on the grounds of luxury resorts impersonating tourists. Recently, she has relocated the family inside a resort community and plans on purchasing a hot pink golf cart for daily exploring.
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