FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2005

CONTACT: Daniel P. Finney, (515) 271-2833 or Daniel.Finney@drake.edu

JOURNALIST, ADVENTURER TO SPEAK AT DRAKE’S COWLES LIBRARY

From dog sledding across Antarctica to kayaking the wild rivers of Chile and China, Jon Bowermaster has made a life out of adventure.

In slides, videos and words, Bowermaster, a 1976 Drake journalism graduate, will spin the tales of adventure, environmental laws and governments gone awry in a lecture 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, at Cowles Library, 28th Street and University Avenue in Des Moines.

The event is free and open to the public and will be Web available via streaming video through the Cowles Library Web site at http://www.lib.drake.edu. The lecture is part of Live! at the Drake Library, the Cowles Library Series.

“Whether as editor, writer, documentary producer or lecturer,” Bowermaster says, “my worldwide travels have a common goal: To inform myself, and my various audiences, as best I can, about how the world works today. My expeditions are less about adventure-for-adventure's-sake and more about what the map of the world looks like early in the 21st century.”

Bowermaster’s 20 years in journalism have taken around the globe writing for a variety of national and international publications from National Geographic to The New York Times. He has visited six continents, including two-person sledding expeditions across Antarctica, sailing a 60-foot sailboat across the Atlantic and making first descents of rivers. Bowermaster has written eight books, including three with renowned polar explorer Will Steger and made a number of documentary films.

During his years as a Drake journalism student, Bowermaster worked at the now-defunct alternative newspaper The Daily Planet, which poked fun at Des Moines’ culture – and earned the ire of DC Comics for taking the name of Superman’s hometown newspaper without permission.

When not traveling, Bowermaster lives in Stone Ridge, N.Y. His biography and selections of his photography and writings are available on his Web site, http://www.jonbowermaster.com.

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