Crai S. Bower

Crai S Bower writes more than 100 travel and lifestyle articles a year for over 30 regional, national and international publications and online resources. If he has a niche, it would be soft adventure in the Pacific Northwest. He has backcountry skied in the Purcell Mountains, kayaked the Yukon River and even tried heli yoga in the Haida Gwaii archipelago. He has also profiled New York fashion designer Peter Som, Apolo Ohno, the musician Michael Franti and many children at the Ronald McDonald House.

Bower writes for a variety of outlets including Forbes.com, MSN.com as well as for Journey and Alaska Airlines Magazine. He contributes AAAJourney.com’s Destination of the Month, WashingtonTimes.com's "Out and About Northwest" and writes a monthly travel guide for the MSN.com homepage detailing such topics as top cycling cities, Native American cultural centers and best college towns. His off the piste profile of Whistler, “Excess is Enough: Riding Whistler-Blackcomb” received the 2008 Northern Lights Award for Excellence in Canadian Travel Journalism. Bower’s profile was featured in the “Seattle 100: Portrait of a City – Voices that Matter.”

Bower also appears monthly as the travel commentator on NPR-affiliate “KUOW Presents,” “My Northwest Weekend” on CBS-affiliate KIRO FM and American Forces Radio. During the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Bower wrote over 50 stories in 17 days and appeared with a dozen different hosts on more than 1,200 radio stations including WABC, Fox Sports Radio and American Forces Radio before more than 7 million listeners. He also discussed the Olympics on Fox television.

Bower is also a humorist, having written “Farts: A Spotter’s Guide,” a field guide to flatulence in the spirit of Roger Tory Peterson’s series. This Chronicle Books (2009) publication recently entered its 5th printing totaling 270,000 copies in 24-months, and received the 2009 “Best Pick for Reluctant Readers Award” from the American Librarians Association. It has also been translated into Finnish where it is in its 2nd printing.

A frequent public speaker, Bower presented keynote speeches to the Society of Professional Journalists, the Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX), and on expert panels for the Canadian Tourism Commission at Canada Media Marketplace and GoMedia, as well for the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Summit and many others.

Bower first publicly discussed his parents’ divorce on NPR-affiliate WXXI when he was 12-years old. He also founded a support group for children of divorce at McQuaid Jesuit High School, where the subject was considered taboo. In 2006, Bower wrote the eulogy for his father, a Presbyterian minister who’d left his family when the writer was eight years old.

Bower graduated from The Evergreen State College with degrees in ornithology, creative writing and environmental history. He writes in Seattle, Washington where he lives with his partner and three boys.
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His website is www.FlowingStreamWriting.net.