Brian Benson

Brian Benson writes memoir and essays about movement, place, masculinity, relationships, and the difficult work of choosing a direction. Going Somewhere recounts the bicycle journey he and his then-partner Rachel made from northern Wisconsin to western Oregon in 2007. What begins as a romantic escape becomes a close study of headwinds, mechanical failures, physical strain, and the different expectations each rider brings to the road. Plume’s 2014 edition carries the fuller subtitle A Bicycle Journey Across America. Benson grew up in Wisconsin’s Northwoods and later settled in Portland, where he has taught writing at the Attic Institute. He also collaborated with Richard Brown on This Is Not For You, an oral-history project about Portland’s Black community and activism. Going Somewhere established his interest in travel as a pressure on identity rather than scenery alone. Its route gives the memoir a clear westward structure, while the changing relationship supplies the uncertainty behind each decision to continue, stop, or imagine a life after arrival.