Lee Carlson | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1958-02-21)February 21, 1958 (age 67) San Diego, California, United States |
| Occupation | |
| Alma mater | Skidmore College |
| Genre | Memoir, poetry, essay, short story |
| Notable works | Passage to Nirvana |
| Website | |
| charlescarlson | |
Lee Carlson (born February 21, 1958) is an American writer best known for his memoir,Passage to Nirvana, about survivingtraumatic brain injury. Prior to publishingPassage to Nirvana he was a magazine and newspaper journalist specializing in writing about outdoor adventure sports such asskiing andscuba diving. He was senior travel editor forSkiing magazine, and has worked for media outlets such asOutside magazine,[1]Newsday, NBC Sports, ESPN and many others.
Carlson grew up inBuffalo, New York, where he attended theNichols School.[2] According to his memoir, he had an upper middle class upbringing, and was an athletic child, participating in sports that included skiing, sailing,[3]lacrosse, and others, which led to his career as an outdoor travel/sportswriter.
He attendedSkidmore College, where he was a student ofClark Blaise, the writing teacher and short-story writer who wasBernard Malamud's main pupil, and also[clarification needed] roommates and good friends withRaymond Carver at theIowa Writers' Workshop at theUniversity of Iowa. Blaise was the director of theInternational Writing Program there. Carlson was a painting major and heavily involved in theater at Skidmore, but credits Blaise with his becoming a professional writer. His other major influence and mentor isPeter Matthiessen, with whom Carlson has studied for many years as aZen Buddhism student.
After college, Carlson worked briefly as a private yacht captain, and then moved to New York to pursue his writing career. He held a number of writer/editor positions at small trade magazines, including editor-in-chief of a low-temperature physics magazine.[citation needed] Eventually he secured a job covering two of his main interests, skiing and travel, when he became senior travel editor atSkiing magazine.
In 2002, several months after working forNBC at the2002 Winter Olympics inSalt Lake City, Carlson was hit by a car and suffered atraumatic brain injury, leading to a year of full-time rehab and several years of recovery. After the accident, Carlson, being a lifelong sailor, decided to once again pursue one of his loves and work as a private yacht captain. He then, with his fiancée Meg, purchased and rebuilt a 25-year-old, 60-foot sailboat they renamed "Nirvana". The accident, aftermath and boat form the metaphorical journey to recovery detailed in his book.
Carlson lives inGreenport, New York, aboard "Nirvana".[4] Carlson holds a 100-tonUS Coast Guard captain's license[5]