About Ken Budd
Ken Budd has written for The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Huffington Post, McSweeney’s, AARP The Magazine, Worldview, and many more publications. 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, CNBC’s Power Lunch, and Martha Stewart Living Radio. 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 holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from George Mason University, and he is one of the founders of the Robert M. Budd scholarship endowment at Mason. Ken and his wife live in Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C. He is available for speaking engagements through the HarperCollins Speakers Bureau. You can follow Ken on Twitter—@VoluntouristKen—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
Henry Thayer
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
212-840-5777
hthayer@bromasite.com
Shirley Sandler
Newman Communications
617-202-4112
shirley.sandler@newmancom.com
Caitlin McCaskey
HarperCollins Speakers Bureau
212-207-7877
caitlin.mccaskey@harpercollins.com
Marianne Merola
Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
212-840-5773
mmerola@bromasite.com
You can e-mail Ken at Ken@KenBudd.us