<p class="biography"><b>Mel Dagg</b> is the author of three short story collections, <i>Same Truck, Different Driver</i>, <i>Women on the Bridge</i>, and <i>Four Wheel Drift: Stories New and Selected</i>. He has lived and worked in many parts of Canada as a teacher and technical writer, and has a PhD in Canadian literature from the University of New Brunswick.</p><p class="biography">Mel was born in Vancouver, BC, and raised on Vancouver Island. As a young man he worked as a deckhand on the famous ocean-going towboat <i>Lloyd B. Gore</i>. He and his wife currently divide their time between Mexico and Vancouver Island. <i>Passage on the Cardena</i> is Mel's first novel.</p>