International reportage
Journalism has taken me around the world. I spent a week living with an Iraqi family in the outer suburbs of Damascus, Syria to write a feature about a wedding. I traipsed the streets of Dakar, Senegal, looking for Chinese immigrants – and I interviewed music superstar Youssou N’Dour while I was in the country. I went searching for the Minangkabau people of western Sumatra, a tribe that is both Islamic and matrilineal with some unusual customs. I travelled north to the Arctic Circle to write about life on board a Russian-crewed tourist ship and to the Orkney Islands of Scotland to write about marine energy research and development and community-owned wind projects. I visited a silk-making village reviving traditional Khmer textiles in the Cambodian countryside near Angkor Wat. I have been to Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Tanzania and Uganda to write about coffee.
Our friends electric
New Statesman | 14 January 2010
A feature on marine and wind energy in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. More
A marriage of inconvenience
The Guardian (G2) | 12 August 2008
Violence and political instability have made weddings in Baghdad virtually impossible. Caitlin Fitzsimmons joins one family who crossed the border to celebrate. More
Chinatown in Dakar
Anyway magazine | July/August 2007
Chopsticks are growing ever more popular in the Senegalese capitol of Dakar. In the past five years Chinese immigrants have taken over an entire city district. anyway looks at an unusual pattern of migration. More (PDF)
Headscarves ahead!
Anyway magazine | winter 2007/2008
Sumatra’s Muslim Minangkabau are a matrilineal society in which the women call
the shots. anyway paid a visit to a people that has discovered the female side of Islam for itself and that lives according to unconventional rules in a paradisical landscape. More (PDF)
Travel and food writing
I am a travel and food writer, with a focus on independent travel with a cultural or environmental edge. My work has been published in The Australian, the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, The Guardian, Anyway Magazine, Portunus Club Magazine, Australian Women’s Health, Rough Guides, Galavanting and SBS Feast (upcoming). I am a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers. I also publish a popular travel and food blog at Roaming Tales.
San Francisco: The rolling transit museum known as the F line
LA Times | 2 May 2010
Travel article on San Francisco’s historic trams, which come from all around the world, including Melbourne.
READ THE ARTICLE
City by the bay: San Francisco
Portunus Club Magazine | spring 2011
Chic, cosmopolitan and with a relaxed, happy-go-lucky vibe, San Francisco has much to offer visitors, as Caitlin Fitzsimmons discovers.
READ THE ARTICLE
Behind the veil
Galavanting | 2 May 2010
Travel essay on spending a week living with an Iraqi family in Syria and my experience as a woman in this part of the world.
READ THE ARTICLE
Kayaking in the Arctic
Australian Women’s Health | November 2008
The seal reclined on the ice floe, its stumpy flippers looking slightly ridiculous against its tubby body. We stopped paddling and let the kayaks glide in silence for a closer look.
READ THE ARTICLE (PDF)
Asia in a day
Anyway magazine | autumn 2007
Nowhere else do the various Asian cultures mix and mingle in quite so inspiring a manner as in Singapore. And nobody is as aware of it as Niko von Saurma, the local head of BMW Designworks – which makes him the perfect person to show anyway around “his” city.
READ THE ARTICLE (PDF)
Rough Guides: Make the Most of Your Time on Earth (contributor)
Book publication: September 2007
Male voice choir in the Welsh valleys | republished on Roaming Tales
Roman ruins at Dougga, Tunisia | republished on Roaming Tales
Kayaking in the Arctic | republished on Roaming Tales
Fighting dragons in Cappadocia
August 2004 | First published in The Australian’s Travel & Indulgences section. Republished on Roaming Tales.
The fresco in the ancient church puzzled us: what was the patron saint of England doing in Turkey? READ THE ARTICLE
Business, media and technology
I am an experienced business journalist, with a particular interest in the intersection of media and technology. My work has appeared in publications around the world, including The Australian and Australian Financial Review in Australia, The Guardian, The Independent, Campaign and Media Week in the UK, and Business Week and Advertising Age in the US.
MORE INFORMATION AND ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
