Ashley Harrell
storyteller, travel journalist, writing coach
Recent Stories
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The story of a Gator's walk-on, and the family (mine) that milked it.
In my parents’ living room in Boca Raton, Fla., there’s a collection of University of Florida Gators football paraphernalia they like to call “The Shrine.” They have the shrine because my brother Alex played on the team. Well, sort of.
Standing Next To Greatness
SB Nation
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A man who served in Iraq would rather work for the birds.
A Fulbright Scholar studies the toucan's contribution to reforestation around agricultural areas in Turrialba, Costa Rica.
The Toucan Warrior
Tico Times
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Dog walkers in Tamarindo no longer take chances. They take weapons.
Pit bulls, American Staffordshire terriers and other aggressive dog breeds are running amok in Tamarindo and Playa Langosta.
Dogs Bite Beach
Tico Times
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Can a lavaless La Fortuna rebrand itself an adventure destination?
Each year, thousands of tourists flock to north-central Costa Rica to see Arenal’s dramatic eruptions and lava flows. But the volcano has been silent for more than a year now, causing uncertainty about the future of tourism in the region.
No Lava, No Cry
Tico Times
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In Costa Rica, anyone can get in the ring with the bull.
A Delaware man was brutally gored last Saturday at a bullfight during the Fiestas de Nosara in Guanacaste. Brent Cropper, 29, was on an extended vacation in Costa Rica when he was twice struck by the bull, which missed his jugular by centimeters.
Bull 2, Gringo 0
Tico Times
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Whose Line? improv actor Colin Mochrie and gang won a trip to Costa Rica.
It’s not every day you get to watch famous people dash into the airport to relieve full bladders, but those paying close attention a couple of weeks ago at Juan Santamaría International Airport were treated to just that spectacle.
Interview with Comedian Colin Mochrie
Tico Times
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The story of an unaffiliated mobile soup kitchen in San Francisco.
A friend recently invited me to accompany his unaffiliated mobile soup kitchen on a project called Food for Thought. My experience taught me that large-scale, delicious food sharing can be as easy, rewarding, and godless as ordering Chinese.
Taking Stock
The Bold Italic
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Hotel Rex is a design-focused homage to literary life.
To enter San Francisco’s Hotel Rex is to be transported to a 1920s literary haunt soaked in the spirit of the Lost Generation.
Hotel Review: Hotel Rex
Jetsetter
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How to get 86ed from San Francisco's most famous bar.
If you live in San Francisco, chances are you know someone – or at least you know someone who knows someone – who has been thrown out of Zeitgeist.
Tough Love
The Bold Italic
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One hotly contested hotel.
The stories of the elderly Asian residents who were forcibly evicted from the I-Hotel in 1977 are told through old photographs etched on the glass windows of the new building.
The International Hotel
The New York Times
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This boutique hotel in Playa Hermosa defines jungle-chic.
Canadian-owned Villas Hermosas, just up the coast from the popular Nicoya Peninsula surf destinations of Malpaís and Santa Teresa, has earned big kudos on TripAdvisor.
Villas Hermosas Ranks Tops With Travelers
Tico Times
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They call it "city of witches."
Escazú means “resting place,” but there’s a restless and often spooky quality to this suburb southwest of San José.
Witches and Other Legends Live on in Escazú
Tico Times
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The party starts Wednesday evening at the annual Fiestas Palmares.
It’s that time of year again when Palmares, a coffee town northwest of San José, transforms into a colossal, rollicking fiesta in which the amount of beer consumed invites comparisons to Oktoberfest.
Booze, Bikers, Bulls Take Over Palmares
Tico Times
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La Quinta Troppo has nine rooms on a hillside overlooking the picturesque bay.
Ducking beneath the palm leaves of a palapa, I entered the nine-room La Quinta Troppo and took a seat next to a life-size skeleton wearing a sombrero woven out of chuspata reeds.
Hotel Review: La Quinta Troppo
Jetsetter
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The twisted tale of San Francisco’s most successful murder groupie.
A young woman in black descends a winding staircase in an Academy of Art dormitory in San Francisco's Pacific Heights. Her dark, wavy hair bounces atop her small frame as she glides out the door and into a warm, mid-September afternoon.
Killer Instinct
SF Weekly
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How I Became a Task Rabbit for hire.
On a sunny day in April, I filled my car with pink napkins and corsage pins. I’d be using them to make fake flowers for a man named Dixie in my temporary role as a “fluffer.”
Hopped Up
The Bold Italic
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San Francisco single's scene — call it strange romance.
At a time when more Americans than ever are remaining single through their 30s and beyond, San Francisco has become a gathering place for the unattached.
Tales of Strange Romance
SF Weekly
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In the projects, truth comes at a price.
Deanna Johnson's alarm clock is going off. She ignores it, and lies so still she could be mistaken for a corpse. She does not open her eyes. She tries not to think about anything. If a woman refuses to acknowledge that one of the most terrifying days of her life has arrived, then maybe it hasn't.
Snitch
SF Weekly
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Children with autism are showing remarkable promise on the iPad.
There are other computers designed for children with autism, but a growing number of experts say that the iPad is cheaper, faster, more user-friendly, more portable, more engaging, and infinitely cooler. Shannon Rosa, whose son is autistic, agrees. "I may erect a tiny altar to Steve Jobs in the corner of our living room," she said.
iHelp for Autism
SF Weekly
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Why won't the parole board free Lonnie Morris?
His walker screeched across the floor as Lonnie Morris entered the San Quentin conference room, where his 15th parole hearing was supposed to have started hours ago.
No Way Out
SF Weekly
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Bridge Motel Residents lived in squalor – then one took the owners to court.
San Francisco's affluent Marina district doesn't have a ghetto. It just has the Bridge Motel, a tilted, reeking monument to neglect whose proprietors are being sued by the city for their egregious safety code violations.
Motel Hell
SF Weekly
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They were young, beautiful and responsible for the killing a man they hardly knew.
They had shared everything — their apartment, their clothes, their men. But in court on April 3, they exchanged only arctic stares. Murder tends to have that effect on friendship.
Pretty Bad Girls
SF Weekly
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"See, you gotta convince the motherfucker that this is the place to park."
It's time for woo-woo. That's what they call it, "they" being the self-appointed parking facilitators and de facto vehicle security guards of SOMA. It's called woo-woo because that's the sound of the men on the job.
Free Parking for Sale
SF Weekly
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A plastic surgeon has positive online reviews, but not from that patient who died.
Fake on-line reviews intended to lure business certainly aren't exclusive to the medical industry, but they seem considerably more insidious when the stakes can be life and death.
Doctoring the Web
SF Weekly
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Dr. Syed’s genius wasn't for medicine but for fraud.
Syed bamboozled doctors, lawyers, professors, business partners, university admissions staff, and even the United States Information Agency. He also duped a Medical Board of California investigator, raising questions about the board's ability to protect the public from phony doctors.
The Many Faces of Dr. Syed
SF Weekly
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Shittin’ on the dock of the Bay.
On a wet September morning at the Hyde Street Harbor, two men carried a kennel onto the Kitty Kat, a tour boat bound for the Farallon Islands. They placed the container at the end of a row of six more that each carried the same cargo — a frightened young sea lion peeking from behind a barred window.
Too Cute to Shoot
SF Weekly
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A world-famous pickup artist tries to teach women to attract decent guys in S.F.
Being a single, straight woman in San Francisco can be an exercise in frustration and humiliation. All around the city, successful single women complain about not being able to find quality partners.
Girl Game
SF Weekly
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Gay porn star goes from meth addict to antidrug posterboy, and back to meth addict.
When the emaciated man in the blue, long-sleeved shirt drifted in through the courtroom doors, not many took note. In fact he was Michael Brandon, a beloved San Franciscan gay porn icon with a 10-inch cock nicknamed Monster -- and a line of dildos created in its likeness.
The Rise and Fall of the Monster
SF Weekly
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How did a dive pro find himself 200 feet down with no way to survive?
The day Zak Jones died, a westerly breeze was picking up and sun glittered on the deck of the 60-foot double-decker dive vessel, Pro Diver II. It was the early morning of Thanksgiving Day 2005, and the plan was to dive to as much as 200 feet deep — not an outing for beginners.
Rebreathe Deep the Gathering Doom
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
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Farris Hassan, not done with his 15 minutes of fame, is up to his old tricks again.
Nearly a year after Hassan became an international media figure for making his clandestine Christmas-break voyage to Baghdad, he gets a ribbing back at home by those at his elite preparatory school. They wonder when he'll escape on another wild ride, but the fact is, he already has.
After Baghdad
The Village Voice
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Best Writing, California Newspaper Publishers Association (2010)
News gem, The Society of Professional Journalists (2009)
First Place Long-Form News Story, AAN AltWeekly Awards (2009)
Third Place Feature Story, Peninsula Press Club Awards (2009)Snitch
SF Weekly
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First Place Feature Non-Deadline, Story Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism (2008)
High Seas
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
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Third Place Long-Form Feature Story, AAN AltWeekly Awards, (2007)
Rebreathe Deep the Gathering Doom
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
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Best Writing, California Newspaper Publishers Association (2006)
Nude protest against herbicide falters for low turnout
The Point Reyes Light
About me
Latin American-based journalist Ashley Harrell tells stories of the poor, the passionate, the sick, and the strange. She also coaches writing at Stanford University.
