Passport Journal has at all times been a spot for dreamers. For these searching for their subsequent journey, their subsequent horizon, their subsequent story. And Pleasure Pecknold, the journal’s editor who has been with Kiwi Assortment for over 13 years, was a kind of dreamers.
On August 10, 2024, we confronted the unimaginable when Pleasure was the sufferer of a tragic automotive accident. We’re overwhelmed with grief, disbelief and heartbreak. She was extra than simply our colleague and Passport editor—she was a pricey pal.
Since 2011, Pleasure embodied the easiest of Passport Journal, infusing it together with her boundless spirit and creativity. As the guts and soul of our publication, she introduced tales to life with an effortlessness that always left us in awe. Her writing had a magical high quality, whisking readers away to faraway locations together with her vivid portrayals of the world’s most enchanting escapes. Whether or not crafting her personal poignant articles or shaping the submissions of others into one thing extraordinary, her work was at all times distinctive, at all times distinctive and at all times unmistakably hers.
Ardour and empathy, plans and puns—Pleasure had all of them. Her cleverness at all times had a twist, typically stunning us together with her surprising wit. She was the very definition of duality—gracefully balancing her wordplay and deep love of popular culture with a profound depth that was strikingly lovely and considerate. We’d name her one-liners and punchy puns “Joyisms.”
Throughout Passport brainstorm classes, Pleasure would glide in with an unmistakable presence; her confidence commanded consideration. After reviewing almost 700 revealed Passport tales, her acquainted, playful response to coated concepts—“We’ve already written that”—can be adopted by her infectious chortle, one which none of us will ever neglect. When it was her flip to pitch, the room would shift; our workforce would lean in, drawn to her palpable concepts and magnetism. She at all times had her finger on the heartbeat, and we had been persistently mesmerized by her huge and ever-encompassing information of the themes she held near her coronary heart.
She was the masterful voice behind a few of Kiwi Assortment’s most important campaigns, together with our annual Kiwi Awards and Scorching Record, plus our twentieth Anniversary Sequence. Ever searching for her subsequent journey, she traveled the world over, at all times returning with tales that she would fantastically share on Passport Journal. Most just lately, her adventures included a picturesque street journey by way of Portugal and a milestone birthday celebration in Paris, every story a testomony to her eternal wanderlust.
Pleasure’s true superpower was placing pen to paper. Past her position as an editor and author, collaborating with many notable manufacturers and publications, she additionally wrote poetry. A group of her poems has been made accessible by her beloved household, in a ebook titled Dispatches from the Life Aquatic.
As we grapple with this profound loss, we discover consolation in figuring out that Pleasure’s spirit and legacy will without end be woven into the material of Passport Journal, guiding us as we proceed to inform the tales she liked a lot.
We’ll miss you deeply, Pleasure. We’ll without end search for indicators of you in nature, the place you discovered each inspiration and solace. How fortunate we had been to name you our editor, mentor, colleague and pal. As we proceed on, we’ll log out along with your phrases, penned in January 2021:
No extra human being
let me be a tree
evergreen respiration—photosynthesis the thesis—
rooted and reaching
sheathed in bark
swaying, wind in hair
whispering to associates
placing on rings
getting taller
willingly wider
Unbothered by rain
or the sensation of ache
or the passing of time so exactly
—Pleasure Pecknold, “Let Me Be A Tree“
Pictures delicately taken from Pleasure’s Instagram @joypecknold | Cowl photograph by Kara Pecknold