Author
David is an author, freelance journalist and travel writer who also specialises in social media, blog writing and content management. But this wasn’t always so. When David graduated Curtin University in the mid-nineties his arts degree galvanised his desires to be storyteller and filmmaker.
Examining the draft on a drinks menu is still honest work!
But like many graduates he needed to escape. He flew to the UK and carved out a pauper existence while jaunting around a continent still fresh from the turmoil of the Soviet Union collapse and prior to a borderless EU. It aroused an unquenchable wanderlust that impelled David with a backpack, camera and guitar across the globe on epic overland journeys – immeasurably stretching a shoestring budget in search of the most remote and compelling destinations to sate his itchy feet and wandering bones.
This passage of time saw David scrape together a minimum wage living in vast array of abodes both in Australia, Europe and more recently the Americas. It produced its own inevitability – the emergence of a travel writer as revealed in his first book “Loves, Kerbsides and Goodbyes”.
After more than a decade and a half David still flouts conventional living for a life on the open road. His ability to write, editorialise and remain highly self-motivated is also proven by his recently completed follow-up travel book titled “Beat Zen and the Art of Dave” which was pubished in December 2015.
He also regularly fulfils editorial, freelance and content writing contracts while blogging creative content, news and travel-themed material. Recently, David has been spending time in the Americas, gathering material for a third travel book while working on two books of fiction. And when he’s not seeking out an unknown horizon or untold story he enjoys being lost in the spaces between places – embracing the vicissitudes, meaning and minutiae of life. Read more…
Books
Out Now! Join the rucksack revolution & order a copy today
Beat Zen and the Art of Dave
is the latest travel memoir by Australian author, David McNamara. His new book expands on the world of independent global travel, to capture how the wonderment of an outbound adventure conspires towards an equally profound inner journey. It is a personal account that only comes from living the life of a vagabond and free spirit.
By sharing the candid story of how the author’s 1998 gap year turned into a way of life, “Beat Zen and the Art of Dave” becomes a wending exploration into the modern wayfaring lifestyle. It intertwines humorous anecdotes and travel lore with backpacking philosophy and Eastern spirituality to show that everyone’s journey is a travelogue of sorts. So join the rucksack revolution because we’re all part of a travel fraternity overlanding it through life. Read more…
“Loves, Kerbsides & Goodbyes” selling fast at the book launch
Taken from a chapter title in the book, “Loves, Kerbsides and Goodbyes” by Australian author David McNamara exposes the raw edge of international budget travel. Spanning six continents, his candid account selects arresting slices of life to capture the risks, adventure, fun and romance of more than a decade on the road. An insightful and emotional account of international backpacking culture driven not by chronology or geography, but by experiential themes – where the main stage on the open road is kerbsides. They’re backpackers’ theatre to meet and re-connect, share their lives, fall in love and say goodbye. By exposing David’s enchantment with movement and the spaces between places, he shares the unpredictability of waking each day in a different place with the unexpected and unlikely wayfarers he meets along the way. In doing so he illuminates the frustrations, joys, tensions, wonderment and brief but tender relationships that afflict and bind backpackers and ordinary folks alike. Read more…
Blogs
