Chaney Kwak (Fiction, June 2009) appears in conversation with travel writer Nathan Hake to discuss The Passenger at Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver.

In March 2019, the Viking Sky cruise ship was struck by a bomb cyclone in the Arctic Sea. Rocked by 60-foot swells and 87-mile-per-hour gales, the ship lost power and began to drift straight toward the notoriously dangerous Hustadvika coast in Norway. The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship is the suspenseful, harrowing, funny, touching story by one passenger who contemplated death aboard that ship. The Passenger takes readers for an unforgettable journey from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco. Kwak weaves his personal experience into events spanning decades and continents to explore the serendipity and relationships that move humans.

Chaney Kwak has been traversing the globe for more than a decade to write about food and travel. His work appears regularly in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as magazines such as Afar, Condé Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Mr. Kwak teaches nonfiction writing at the Stanford Continuing Studies program and lives in San Francisco.

Originally from Denver, Colorado, Nathan Hake is a recovering corporate lawyer turned travel blogger, digital nomad, and entrepreneur. His travel blog, TravelLemming.com, focuses on promoting emerging destinations around the world as a solution to the problem of overtourism. He also founded a small B2B software company, Collection Harbor, and has done some freelance writing work along the way.