Steven Callahan

Steven Callahan is probably best known for his book "Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea", based on his own survival voyage. "Adrift" was among the first "adventures in real life" to reach The New York Times bestsellers list where it rested for half a year and paved the way for books like "The Perfect Storm" and "Into Thin Air". It also won the Salon du Libre Maritime in France, was chosen as a "best book of the 1980's" and "best book for young adults" by the American Library Association, has been published in 13 languages, and has been adopted to the stage. Among Adrift's numerous editions in English is the recent hardcover by The Adventure Library where it keeps company with classics like Joshua Slocum's Sailing Around the World Alone and Thor Hyerdahl's Kon Tiki.

Callahan has also authored "Capsized", which chronicles the experience of four men trapped on an overturned, half-flooded trimaran off of New Zealand for four months in 1989. The book has been translated into German and has also been adapted to the stage. Callahan has contributed to a dozen other books as well, the majority on seamanship and survival, and spent four years at Cruising World magazine, a New York Times publication, where he served as senior editor. Now a Cruising World editor at large, Callahan remains a frequent contributor to the yachting press worldwide, but has also written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, High Technology, International Wildlife and Ultrasport, among others.

Callahan's nautical writings are based on his experiences while logging over 70,000 miles offshore, including seven ocean crossings on boats from 21- to 65-feet, all but two single-handed or double-handed. In his eyes, the sea is the world's greatest wilderness. Such environments, Callahan believes, reveal and heighten elements of human character and provide unique windows onto society. Although he often writes technical material, philosophical ideas and universal human emotions most interest him, and the resultant themes that weave through his writings have drawn general-interest readers to his nautical stories that before "Adrift" were almost always relegated to specialty niche-marketing publishing. As a result, he's been featured in scores of media venues in more than a dozen countries, including Reader's Digest and People magazines, the Tonight and Today shows, Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, Voice of America, and NPR's All Things Considered. In 1988 he was the subject of a Heath Reading Video on ocean survival for primary school children, and an NHK (Japan's Public Broadcasting) television series on the human body. In the last couple years, he was featured in two programs aired in the U.S. via the Discovery Network, including a BBC series on survival hosted by Ray Mears. He's contributed to several other upcoming television projects, and his work has been featured in such magazines as Down East, Men's Journal and Maxim.

Callahan continues to interview survivors and survival experts worldwide. Safety equipment manufacturers occasionally retain him as a consultant and he lectures to both yachting and non-yachting groups. Currently however, his primary focus is on completing a book, tentatively titled "Dancing with Doom: Learning to Survive and Thrive in the Face of Life's Greatest Challenges", upon which his current presentation is based. Previously, he's given presentations for scores of maritime interest, including yacht clubs and the Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Baltimore, and Mystic, Connecticut Aquariums, but his audiences have been as wide-ranging as finance (U.S. Trust), medicine (The Worcester Institute), computer systems (Primavera Systems), and youth at risk (Black Hills Children's Home).