Lowell Klessig
SHORT BIO:
Lowell Klessig led a life of action, ambition and accomplishment. He directly participated in the Civil Rights and Peace Movements. In addition, he became a celebrated conservation leader and environmental advocate in Wisconsin, the nation and around the world.
Lowell won the Wisconsin Idea Award and UW-Extension’s Teacher of the Year Award, among many other recognitions. His research and work served as the basis for several conservation laws. All along the way, he wrote, published and taught the ideas and lessons garnered from a multitude of experiences.
Lowell passed away in 2014 after a year-long battle with CJD – a rare neurodegenerative disease. This book is his first written chronicle of the anxiety, mania and depression that shaped his shortened life.
LONG BIO:
Lowell Klessig led a life of action, ambition and accomplishment. He directly participated in the Civil Rights and Peace Movements. In addition, he became a celebrated conservation leader and environmental advocate in Wisconsin, the nation and around the world.
Lowell won the Wisconsin Idea Award and UW-Extension’s Teacher of the Year Award, among many other recognitions. His research and work served as the basis for several conservation laws. All along the way, he wrote, published and taught the ideas and lessons garnered from a multitude of experiences.
Lowell passed away in 2014 after a year-long battle with CJD – a rare neurodegenerative disease. This book is his first written chronicle of the anxiety, mania and depression that shaped his shortened life.
Some other selected highlights:
AWARDS:
US Department of Agriculture Career Service Award
Wisconsin Governor’s Distinguished Service Commendation
Wisconsin Lakes Lifetime Achievement Award
Community Development Association Distinguished Service Award
Wisconsin Lake Districts Distinguished Service Award
Soil and Water Conservation Society Achievement Award
State Visionary Leadership Award
University of Wisconsin Meritorious Service Award
LEGACY:
Multiple Signature Pens from four Governors for key role in Wisconsin legislation.
50+ academic book chapters, journal articles and magazine features published.
Two prior books: 1. One Family’s Forest & 2. The Elf Odyssey: National Security Versus Environmental Protection.
CAREER:
27 years as a professor of natural resources management and rural sociology for the University of Wisconsin system.
Extension educator/liaison for additional areas including acid rain, renewable energy, economic development and sustainable agriculture.
ACTIVE LEADER OF VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS:
Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program
Wisconsin Woodland Leaders Institute
Wisconsin Family Forests
Wisconsin Master Woodland Steward Program
Scenic Wisconsin
Science and Religion Task Force
Town of New Hope Planning Committee
Portage County Board of Adjustment
Sigurd Olson Institute
North American Lake Management Society
Wisconsin Lake Leaders Institute
Wisconsin Lakes Convention
Wisconsin Lakes Partnership
DEGREES:
B.S. in Biochemistry (UW-Madison)
M.A.T. in Molecular Biology (Vanderbilt)
M.S. in Sociology (UW-Madison)
Ph.D. in Environmental Management (UW-Madison)
ROLES FOR PURPOSE:
Caretaker of 296 acres of Wisconsin land across four properties.
Unrelenting essayist and writer, sometimes poet. Hopefully with some favorable results.
Father of 2 boys, imperfect but caring husband, animal lover and respecter.
Explorer of 56+ countries and 6 continents, but who’s counting?
Conservation pioneer and community-minded citizen who sought to live so that his epitaph would, one day, accurately read “He taught us to think.”
HIGH RES IMAGES OF LOWELL KLESSIG (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download)
Some other selected highlights:
AWARDS:
LOW RES IMAGES OF LOWELL KLESSIG (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download; See Above or Email for Larger Versions)
Lukas Klessig
SHORT BIO:
Lukas Klessig lives at the family ranch in Wisconsin, managing the care of forests, fields, gardens and buildings. He also looks after his Mom, monitors the family’s investments and, occasionally, tries to be creative. His book Words With My Father: A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times owes its existence partially to this compulsion, but also to a promise he made to his dying father.
Lukas is a proponent of mental health advocacy, animal welfare, outdoor living and physical activity. He spends winters in southern Florida. His beloved cat Shaddy often loiters nearby, supervising his activities.
LONG BIO:
Lukas Klessig lives at the family ranch in Wisconsin, managing the care of forests, fields, gardens and buildings. He also looks after his Mom, monitors the family’s investments and, occasionally, tries to be creative. His book Words With My Father: A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times owes its existence partially to this compulsion, but also to a promise he made to his dying father.
Lukas is a proponent of mental health advocacy, animal welfare, outdoor living and physical activity. He spends winters in southern Florida. His beloved cat Shaddy often loiters nearby, supervising his activities.
Lukas studied history, Spanish and international relations at UW-Madison and FIU. He became an Eagle Scout at 16 and transferred those skills to jobs keeping violent kids safe, handing out menus in business parks, arranging luxury travel and consulting on client marketing for global brands.
Most of his best sentences emerged on many mile walks on quiet roads and trails. His routine includes too much ice cream, bug spray and bushwhacking and too many economics podcasts, worn-out shoes and anti-balding efforts. Lukas counts Australia, Hawaii, the Caribbean and southern Spain as favorite destinations – you get the idea.
He would really like you to read his book and thanks you in advance for telling your friends about it.
HIGH RES IMAGES OF LUKAS KLESSIG (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download)
LOW RES IMAGES OF LUKAS KLESSIG (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download; See Above or Email for Larger Versions)
Michael Berger – Audiobook Narrator
BIO:
Michael Berger has delighted millions with his distinctive voice and delivered results for hundreds of happy clients. Based in SoCal, his supremely listenable expressions reach far and wide.
He is the longtime voice of CBS’ Lucky Dog, Quest Network and thousands of other commercial and narration projects. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and was the show announcer for the Screen Actors Guild Awards on TNT & TBS.
San Diegans know him from years on major metro radio. He is represented by Vox (LA) and ACM (NY).
BTW, along with his wife, he grows and makes award-winning wines at Effenberger Vineyards.
Learn more at michaelberger.com.
IMAGES OF MICHAEL BERGER (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download)
WORDS WITH MY FATHER
A Bipolar Journey Through Turbulent Times
MISSION:
A deceased father and alive son discuss the development of the father’s bipolar condition during the turmoil of the 1960s and explore the insights into better mental health that readers can absorb from his intense odyssey.
SYNOPSIS:
Words With My Father offers a gripping portrait of the evolution of a young man’s mental illness and how it manifested into a dramatic and often dangerous existence during the turmoil of the Civil Rights, Peace and Conservation movements.
INSPIRATION:
Lukas Klessig: “My Dad passed away before he could finish this story. The disease that killed him also took away his cognitive and communication capacities. For a deep and constant thinker like my father, there’s really no way you can relieve the torture of his faculties mercilessly fading. But, if he knew that I would share his message, that I would continue his work, that, I thought, could give him some peace.”
ISBNS / ASINS (ISBN10):
Hardcover: 9780960118908 / 096011890X
Paperback: 9780960118915 / 0960118918
Kindle: 9780960118939 / B0BXFN7B49
ePub: 9780960118922 / 0960118926
Audiobook (Retail): 9780960118946 / 0960118942
Audiobook (Libraries): 9780960118953 / 0960118950
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER:
LCCN: 2023912181
EXCERPTS:
Read or download PDF below. Alternatively, you can read the Introduction HERE on Amazon.
BOOK AND OTHER IMAGES – HIGH RES (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download)
BOOK AND OTHER IMAGES – LOW RES (Click to Expand. Then, Right Click to Download)
POTENTIAL INTERVIEW TOPICS AND QUESTIONS
TOPICS:
– Ways to improve/fix mental health care systems in the US and worldwide. Continuity of care. Holistic therapies.
– Benefits to mental well-being from exposure to nature, exercise, movement, physical challenge.
– Problems with the modern pace of life, stimuli onslaught, the paradox of infinite choice and expectation of instant gratification on societal and individual identity and fulfillment.
– Youth mental health crisis and how “virtual” experiences serve as maladaptive substitutes for development.
– Our modern tendency to pathologize common emotions and life events.
– Resilience and post traumatic growth versus victim mentality and “perpetual patient” mindset.
– Do climate change, political uncertainty, limitless information explain higher rates of mental illness diagnoses?
QUESTIONS:
– What issue in the news affects our mental well-being the most?
– How do you feel the narrative and its messages resonate with our current world?
– Have members of your family criticized your unveiling these aspects of your father’s and family’s struggles?
– Has mental illness been a taboo subject in your family?
– How accurate will people find the portrayal of bipolar illness in the book?
– Some people who have bipolar disorder don’t consider it an illness or condition that requires fixing. Does that assertion strike you as valid or defensible?
– What trait of your father stands out the most in your mind?
– What events described in the book do you believe your father regretted the most?
– What did it feel like discovering and, then, including and editing your father’s suicide attempt?
– How intentionally did you include your father’s strengths and faults into your depiction?
– What happened in your father’s life and journey with bipolar after the events which the book ends on?
– Do you think the efficiency and precision of mental health care has improved since the era of the story? How so?
– Why do you feel strongly that therapy for mental illnesses still overly focuses and relies on patients’ pasts to explain their issues?
– Do you remain optimistic about the future of treating and even preventing mental illness?
– Why did you write this book?
– Who is this book for?
– Could you tell us what the book is about?
– Why should readers pick it up?
– Did you feel qualified to write about this subject?
– Why did you choose the title Words With My Father instead of several alternatives? What does it mean to you?
– In what genre(s) does Words With My Father belong?
– What was the hardest part about writing this book?
– Could you tell us a bit about the cover and design of the book?
– What is the main message or takeaway from the story?
– What’s next for you? Are you writing anything new? Editing more of your father’s pieces?
– Anything we or readers can do to help with your mission?
– Where can we learn more?
CONTACT INFORMATION
Lukas Klessig
[email protected]
(561) 223-9087 (text and voicemail only)
*If urgent, I will return your call promptly.
RECENT PRESS RELEASES
RECENT REVIEWS, MEDIA MENTIONS, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
RECOGNITION:
“Emotive memoir from father and son, exploring mental illness and social activism. (Their) writing deeply inspires.”
– Publishers Weekly
“A different sort of family story, and a valuable one. Get it.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“Undaunted…with vital messages and insights that extend to all of society.”
– Michael Dombeck, Former Head of the U.S. Forest Service and the Federal Bureau of Land Management.
“Feedback, including from top researchers, has extolled the narrative’s skill for enhancing viewpoints, local color and introspection.“
– Wisconsin Media Group / TCN
“Lowell Klessig and his son Lukas exchange vital perspectives on how to live in an uncertain world, both political and personal, and how to arbitrate a family history of risk for bipolar disorder. Theirs are, indeed, deep and affecting Words.”
– Dr. Stephen P. Hinshaw, Founder of UC-Berkeley’s Hinshaw Lab and author of Another Kind of Madness (St. Martin’s, 2017).
“Words With My Father is a unique and interesting read, offering a blend of personal insight into mental health, environmental philosophy, and historical context, making it an engaging choice…”
– Wisconsin Writers Association (M. Caffrey)
“Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, we especially and unreservedly recommend Words With My Father for…Psychology/Psychiatry collections and curriculum.”
– Midwest Book Review
“(This) epic tale…acts as a lever to reflect on the intertwining between people experiencing (mental) illness and their environments.”
-CEYMH (Charles-Albert Morin)
“…a biography for most people would be pushing it, but most people don’t have the interesting life that Lowell Klessig did.”
– Books & Pals
“You never really know what’s going on behind the scenes in other people’s lives, but this was a fascinating glimpse into the private matters of one such family. …Excellent. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
– L&S Reviews
MEDIA:
– Profile Critics
– DBSA NCA Recommended Book
– Shepherd Feature
– Community Spirit Feature (only print available)
– Stevens Point Gazette Cover Feature
– Wisconsin Media Group / TCN Feature
– University of Milan Conference
– Treatment Advocacy Center
– UWSP Libraries Interview for Mental Health Awareness Month
– Wisconsin Writers Association Podcast
AWARDS:
– 2024 Inside Out Awards Short List
– 2024 Northwind Writing Award Honorable Mention
– 2023 Wisconsin Writers Awards – Nonfiction Longlist
OTHER DOWNLOADABLE ASSETS
Download Buttons immediately below for:
– Editable Word Doc with all above text
– Book Club Kit with more detailed questions and answers
– Book Club Kit (simple text Word Doc)
– Guest Post with further discussion context