André J. de Saint Phalle

Vermont-based memoirist. Currently writing Book 2 of a trilogy. At 21 I stood on an American highway with my thumb out, and a stranger stopped. For five hours it was his story, my story, the road. That happened hundreds of times across 10,000 miles — and I've been doing the same thing ever since. In my thirties I caught the trade winds in the Caribbean — fell in love, built a life on the water, and lost more than I knew I could. In Vermont I built something from nothing and stayed twenty-five years. Different rides, same act of faith: you put yourself out there and trust that someone stops. That's the arc of my three-book memoir — the road, the ocean, the mountains. And now YouTube, which is just hitchhiking again. A camera instead of a thumb. Strangers who become passengers, passengers who become friends. I grew up in a world that no longer exists. No screens, no followers, no personal brand. Just people, places, the slow accumulation of a life. Get in.