Bill and Anne Frej’s most recent book, “Travels Across the Roof of the World: A Himalayan Memoir”  has earned the silver award  for the Travel Book (other than guidebook) category in this year’s Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

The Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Foundation sponsors the annual Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition to honor excellence in the field. 117 editors, writers, photographers, podcasters, social media experts and videographers were honored by the SATW Foundation for their outstanding work in helping to make the world of travel accessible, understandable and achievable.

For the 2022-2023 competition, judging was overseen by the University of Missouri School of Journalism with Emeritus Prof. John Fennell and Prof. Jennifer Rowe coordinating 25 judges this year. There were a near-record 1,430 entries. 

Judges said of the book, “This looks like a massive coffee-table book at first glance, and it is indeed visually gorgeous. Yet the contents are so much more than eye candy. The photographs of William Frej are stunning. The words he contributes with Anne Frej complement the images achingly well. Add the scholarly essay by Edwin Bernbaum and the book’s foreword, and the result is a combination of wonder. The “roof of the world” signifies the collective region termed the Himalayas. Daily life tends to be isolated and hard on the mountains and in their valleys. The work chronicles more than 20 treks by the authors in the regions of what today is termed Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, plus parts of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.”