How does an English major just out of college become a journalist, write 11 books, travel to regions all over world to cover stories, and share a Pulitzer Prize for his writing on the nuclear arms race, without ever taking a journalism course? What are the characteristics that allow that to happen? John Powers, long-time Boston Globe journalist—writer for the Sports, Metro, Sunday, Magazine and Living departments, was that person. His talk will focus on his journey, describing what he calls a child’s curiosity that allowed this diverse and expansive career.  

John Powers worked for the Boston Globe from 1973 until his retirement in 2015, writing for the Sports, Metro, Sunday, Magazine and Living departments. He continues to appear frequently in the newspaper as a correspondent and also contributes to other publications. He shared the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a special Globe magazine on the nuclear arms race. As part of his international sports beat he has covered the Olympic Games since 1976, as well as seven men's and women's soccer World Cups, and has produced stories from five continents. Powers is the author of 11 books: The Short Season (a Boston Celtics diary), One Goal (with Art Kaminsky, on the 1980 US Olympic hockey team), Yankees (with George Sullivan, a club history), Mary Lou (with Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, an autobiography), Seasons to Remember (with Curt Gowdy, a memoir), The Boston Dictionary and The Boston Handbook (humorous lexicons with illustrator Peter Wallace), Fenway Park: 100th Anniversary (with Ron Driscoll), The Third H Book of Harvard Athletics (with John Veneziano), The Head Of The Charles Regatta: First 50, and Fridays With Bill. Powers, a cum laude 1970 graduate of Harvard and a former Poynter Fellow at Yale, lives in Brewster, Mass. with his wife Elaine.