about-the-author

About Ken Budd

Ken Budd’s writing credits include The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, National Geographic Traveler, NationalGeographic.com, The Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, CityLab, AARP The Magazine, McSweeney’s, and many more. His writing has won gold awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Travel Journalists Association, and his work will appear in the 2020 edition of The Best American Travel Writing. He has made nearly 100 appearances on TV and radio, including NBC’s Today, CBS This Morning, ABC News Now, CBS’s The Early Show, and Martha Stewart Living Radio. Ken is the host of 650,000 Hours, an upcoming web series on travel and real-life heroes. After volunteering in New Orleans and Costa Rica, Ken worked in four countries in nine months—China, Ecuador, Palestine, Kenya—for his memoir, The Voluntourist. He is available for speaking engagements through the HarperCollins Speakers Bureau. You can follow Ken on Twitter—@Ken_Budd—and on Facebook. Here’s Ken discussing The Voluntourist on C-SPAN’s Book TV and DC Fox 5.

Trip Trivia

Food I miss most: Falafel in Bethlehem

Favorite scenery: Sunsets in the Andes

Best animal sighting: Lions in Kenya

Place where I most felt like an idiot: China

Place that was highest on my bucket list: Jerusalem

Places still on my bucket list: Alaska, Egypt, India, Japan, Peru, Spain (and I want to revisit the places where I volunteered)

Ken Facts

Birthplace: Washington, D.C.

Favorite writers: Kurt Vonnegut, Flannery O’Conner, T.C. Boyle

Favorite novel: Catch-22

Favorite musician: John Hiatt

Movies I can watch repeatedly: Duck Soup, The Big Lebowski

Dream job: Astrophysicist (but I lack the math skills)

Favorite Simpsons line:
Homer to aliens: “Don’t eat me! I have a wife and kids! Eat them.”

What I enjoy for fun: Biking, hiking, reading, happy hours, South Park, watching geeky astronomy shows on the Science Channel, George Mason University basketball

I am grateful for: My wife, family, friends, pizza, the opportunity to travel


Contact Info

Literary Agent
Henry Thayer
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
212-840-5777
hthayer@bromasite.com
Interviews and Publicity
Camille Collins
HarperCollins
212-207-7501
camille.collins@harpercollins.com
Speaking Engagements
Natalie Duncan
HarperCollins Speakers Bureau
212-207-7719
natalie.duncan@harpercollins.com
Foreign Rights
Marianne Merola
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
212-840-5773
mmerola@bromasite.com

You can e-mail Ken at ken@650000hours.com.