An Austin nail artist is expanding the local reach of her independently published memoir. Beginning July 1, Kaitlin Le's 21 Days in the Southwest: A Woman's Solo Journey through the Sacred American Southwest will go on sale at the Austin Public Library Shop. This marks another milestone after the memoir appeared at BookPeople and sold out twice at Embellish Nails & Boutique, the North Austin salon where Le works, she says.
In 21 Days in the Southwest, Le chronicles her spontaneous 21-day solo road trip through six states and 10 national parks. Inspired by a visit to Big Bend National Park in 2021, she set out the following year across the states of the American Southwest, ending at Saguaro National Park, the final park before returning home to Austin.
Blending daily journal entries with photography, poetry, personal reflections, and practical travel tips, she recounts adventures ranging from desert storms and lost backpacks to quiet moments of self-reflection, describing the stories as "funny, lonely, and life-changing."
Le kayaks on Lake Powell, the reservoir on the Arizona-Utah border where she says a cliff jump gave her the confidence to paddle bigger waters on her own.Photo courtesy Kaitlin Le
Le likens the memoir less to Eat, Pray, Love than Into the Wild. Rather than searching for romance or reinvention, she writes that the journey was driven by solitude, curiosity, adventure, and a desire to reconnect with nature after a period of significant personal change. Throughout the book, she also shares practical itinerary suggestions, lodging recommendations, and travel tips for readers hoping to explore the Southwest themselves (download offline maps, expect little or no Wi-Fi, pack the bug spray).
Born and raised in rural Bến Tre Province in southern Vietnam, Le moved to Sydney, Australia, at 18 to study communication and graphic design while working multiple jobs. Later, she immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Austin in 2018, where she trained as a cosmetologist and built a career as a nail technician while continuing to pursue her lifelong passion for writing.
Le explores Death Valley National Park, the desert park spanning eastern California and Nevada, where she faced some of the trip's biggest challenges, including breaking her car key. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Le
Le's path to Austin was anything but conventional. After leaving Seattle, she traveled through several Texas cities before making an unexpected decision. Standing at the Stevie Ray Vaughan Statue on the shores of Lady Bird Lake, Le held two slips of paper bearing the names of different Texas cities. She drew one at random. It read "Austin."
The city soon became home to Le and her mother. As she writes of her travels, Le reflects on her life — from growing up in rural Vietnam and immigrating first to Australia and then the United States to the death of her father, her mother's sacrifices, and the winding path that ultimately led her to Austin.
Sunset settles over Saguaro National Park near Tucson, home to the nation's largest cacti and the final national park Le visited before returning home to Austin.Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Le
Le closes the book with a bonus chapter about Big Bend National Park, the West Texas park she credits with inspiring the journey. By the memoir's conclusion, she returns to Austin with a renewed appreciation for the city she once chose almost by chance. After years of living in Vietnam, Australia, Seattle, and finally Texas, she realizes the place she had been searching for was waiting at the end of the journey. She now owns a home in Austin, putting down permanent roots in the city she calls home.
