Peter Nichols is the author of the national best sellers Evolution’s Captain and A Voyage for Madmen; a memoir, Sea Change: Alone across the Atlantic in a Wooden Boat; and the novel Voyage to the North Star. His book about nineteenth-century whaling will be published by Putnam in 2009. He has taught creative writing at Georgetown University, New York University, and Bowdoin College. Before turning to writing full-time, he was a professional yacht captain.