Olsen, Brad(ford C.) 1965-

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OLSEN, Brad(ford C.) 1965-

PERSONAL: Born 1965. Education: Illinois State University, B.A., B.S.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Francisco, CA. Offıce— CCC Publishing, 530 Eighth Ave., San Francisco, CA 94118. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Author, editor, photographer, and artist. Consortium of Collective Consciousness Publishing, San Francisco, CA, founder.

WRITINGS:

(And illustrator) World Stompers: A Young Person'sUltra-Budget Guide to Travel, second edition, Consortium of Collective Consciousness Publishing (San Francisco, CA), 1996, fifth edition, 2001.

World Stompers: A Global Travel Manifesto, third edition, Consortium of Collective Consciousness Publishing (San Francisco, CA), 1997, fifth edition, 2001.

(And illustrator) Extreme Adventures: Hawaii, Hunter Publishing (Hobe Sound, FL), 1998.

(And illustrator) Extreme Adventures: Northern California, Hunter Publishing (Hobe Sound, FL), 1998.

(And illustrator) Sacred Places: 101 Spiritual Sites around the World, Consortium of Collective Consciousness (San Francisco, CA), 2000, second edition published as Sacred Places around the World: 108 Destinations, 2004.

(And illustrator) Sacred Places, North America: 108Destinations, Consortium of Collective Consciousness (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Editor of World Explorer magazine; columnist for Heartland Healing.

SIDELIGHTS: Travel writer Brad Olsen credits his love of art to his mother, a watercolorist, and his love of travel to family vacations during his childhood. In college, he met friend and roommate Tommy Peloquin, who proved to be a kindred spirit. Together they decided to hitchhike to Matamoros, Mexico, over spring break. The trip, for which they spent a total of seventy-five dollars over eleven days, was the forerunner of the adventure trips Olsen has become known for as a travel writer. After graduation, Olsen's low-budget travels continued, frequently solo, and he branched out to Europe, visiting Britain and Greece. Shortly after returning to the United States, Olsen met a woman who suggested he go to Japan to teach English, an encounter that led to his backpacking through the country and living in Kyoto for a time. That trip evolved into the three-year, around-the-world adventure he chronicles in his first travel book, World Stompers: A Global Travel Manifesto.

The premise of Olsen's adventure traveling is that a large budget is not a requirement for seeing the world. His trips revolve around traveling light, working as you go, and spending as little money as possible, while still striving to have an incredible adventure. His books include both travel tips and stories about his experiences, and convey his enthusiasm for exploring new places. A Connecting Solo Travel Network writer quoted Olsen as saying of World Stompers that it "is written in a footloose and fancy-free style, including information on where to party." He added, "For those who are already well-traveled . . . this is not the book for you." Thomas K. Fry remarked in a review for Library Journal that the book is "more about the overall experience of travel than a traditional guidebook," and he recommended it for teens and twenty-something travelers.

Olsen's "Extreme Adventures" series covers Hawaii and northern California and are specifically tailored to travelers interested in active adventure trips that incorporate extreme outdoor activities such as rock climbing, mountain biking, sky boarding, and snow boarding. David Schau, in a review for Library Journal, said that both volumes are "replete with practical advice—the best being to avoid any activity you have the slightest degree of uncertainty about." He did, however comment on the sloppiness of the volumes, including misspellings and the fact that maps are crudely drawn and not to scale, making them less than helpful on a practical level.

Olsen publishes many of his travel books through the Consortium of Collective Consciousness, a publishing house he founded in San Francisco. Olsen has also written books that address traveling to the sacred places of the world. These volumes offer the reader one hundred and eight places to choose from, a number he chose for its importance in East Asian religions where it is associated with the cosmos and the Earth's cycles, as well as the number of circuits Buddhist or Hindu pilgrims perform around the base of a sacred mountain or temple. Olsen's books provide information on such lesser-known and varied sites as the Stonehenge-like site located in the state of New Hampshire and the early human footprints visible on the Laetoli Plain in Tanzania. In a review of Sacred Places around the World: 108 Destinations, Library Journal reviewer Nancy Almand noted that the work "could whet any traveler's appetite for the exotic and the spiritual."

Sacred Places around the World includes historical backgrounds on all the sites mentioned, as well as the spiritual rites that were performed at the individual locations, and Olsen also provides an introduction that discusses the belief that man has a tangible spiritual connection to the world in which he lives. Sacred Places, North America: 108 Destinations is distilled from the global edition, offering expanded information for the various regions of North America, most of which are Native American in origin. John McCormick, writing in Library Journal, called this work "an interesting book for both the armchair and the adventurous traveler."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Insight on the News, March 2, 2004, "Kids, Forget Disney World, We're Going to Guatemala!," p. 17.

Library Journal, August, 1998, David Schau, review of Extreme Adventures: Hawaii and Extreme Adventures: Northern California, p. 120; August, 1998, Thomas K. Fry, review of World Stompers: A Global Travel Manifesto, fourth edition, p. 120; April 15, 2003, John McCormick, review of Sacred Places North America: 108 Destinations, p. 112; May 1, 2004, Nancy Almand, review of Sacred Places around the World: 108 Destinations, p. 132.