Welcome

"Life is both fleeting and dangerous, and there is no point in denying yourself pleasure or being anything other than what you are." — Elizabeth Gilbert

Welcome to This Life Is To Wander.

Wandering—as far back as her memory takes her, M. Townsend has yielded to its insatiable urge. Much like a moth to a flame, the delight of movement and discovery combined has always had a magnetic pull on her life and art.

M. Townsend is a literary memoirist, photographer, and sometimes watercolor doodler living between the mountain forest of Truckee, California, and the ancient village of Vagliagli, Italy. This site functions as her digital author's home— a curated space where readers can find news and links to her writing and creative work.

Book excerpts from her debut memoir, alongside ongoing literary essays, photographs, and watercolor fragments, can be found at The House at the Town's End on Substack.