What are the ethics of writing about a place you visit as an outsider? With Granta's long tradition of travel writing in mind, we ask some of the foremost writers of the genre: is travel writing dead? Tara Bergin, Rana Dasgupta, Geoff Dyer, Eliza Griswold, Mohsin Hamid, Lindsey Hilsum, Colin Thubron, Pico Iyer, Ian Jack, Robert Macfarlane, Wendell Steavenson, Samanth Subramanian and Alexis Wright Plus: William Atkins investigates murder on the US-Mexico border Xan Rice goes back to school in South Africa David Flusfeder's road trip to Detroit and California in search of his father's past Xiaolu Guo leaves China's 'semi-tropical south' for the 'solemn and tough north' Janine di Giovanni's homesickness Amit Chaudhuri returns to the city of his birth New fiction from Edna O'Brien; poetry by Emily Berry and Zeyar Lynn; photography by Justin Jin, Carl De Keyzer and Andrew McConnell introduced by A Yi and Adam Marek