Michael Luongo has been to over 80 countries and all seven continents, with most of his work in Latin America and the Middle East.

His unusual work includes looking at Afghanistan’s homosocial culture and war-torn Baghdad. He edited Gay Travels in the Muslim World, the only gay American book published in Arabic, with the New York Post’s Page 6 calling him the gay Salman Rushdie. He’s also co-editor of the first college textbook looking at the gay travel industry, the 2002 Gay Tourism: Culture, Identity and Sex.

Michael lives part time in Argentina and is author of Frommer’s Buenos Aires. Some of his surreal travel adventures include riding Juan Peron’s coffin through Buenos Aires during his 2006 reburial, meeting Jordan’s Queen Rania at Jesus’s baptism site and visiting Bin Laden’s caves after spending the night in an Afghan warlord’s mansion.

Michael’s credits include the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Bloomberg, CNN, Out Traveler, Out & About, the Advocate, Gay City News and many others. He was the North American Travel Journalists Association’s 2010 Grand Prize in Travel Journalism Award winner, and the 2011 LGBT Journalist of the Year for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association, receiving the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award. As an New York University adjunct professor, he also teaches travel writing.

Visit Michael at www.michaelluongo.com or www.mrbuenosaires.com.