38 | The Writer • November 2019
LITERARY SPOTLIGHT
BY MELISSA HART INSIDE LITERARY MAGAZINES
Photo^ by^ InHer^ ImagePhotographyT
he website homepage for
the travel magazine Hid-
den Compass features a
manifesto of sorts. Editors
Sabine Bergmann and Sivani Babu
explain, in a piece titled “The Age of
Audacity,” how they grew up pretend-
ing to be astronauts at space camp
and launching rockets in their back-
yards, thrilled by possibility in the
wake of the Space Race.
“We want it back,” they write. “We
want to live in a world where the names
of astronauts, explorers, scientists and
inventors roll off our tongues as easily
as the names of the Kardashians. We’re
willing to bet that we’re not alone.”
When Bergmann and Babu founded
Hidden Compass in 2017, they wanted
to create a travel magazine different
from those that report on perfect vaca-
tion spots and how to take a cruise.
“We’re not afraid to bring in other
genres and topics like science, history,and art,” Bergmann explains. “We pub-
lish historical pieces that take place in
different eras, stories that include anal-
ysis of a particular painting. Our writ-
ers and photographers geek out on
very specific and scientific things.”Tone, editorial content
The editors gravitate toward first-per-
son journalistic travel stories that
blend reportage with personal experi-
ence – stories like “You Should BeHidden Compass
’Our publication sees travel as exploration rather than vacation,’
say the editors of this in-depth travel magazine.Sabine Bergmann and Sivani Babu, co-editors/co-founders of Hidden Compass.