Dean King is an award-winning and bestselling author of historical non-fiction, a television producer, and an acclaimed inspirational speaker. He is known for books including The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys: The True Story, and Unbound: A True Story of War, Love and Survival. A cancer survivor who has experienced a life of extraordinary adventure, King is an inspirational and fascinating speaker who instils in his audience a sense of excitement and possibility.

King’s career began in the magazine industry in New York, where he was an original contributing editor of Men’s Journal, a director of book publishing at National Review, and founded Bubba Magazine in the early 1990s. He has since written for a range of publications including Esquire, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Outside and National Geographic Adventure. Today, King is best known for his ten non-fiction historical works, which are predominantly on adventure and maritime subjects. These include companion books to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series of novels, as well as a biography of O’Brian himself. His work has been adapted for the screen, including Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, which was made into a History Channel documentary. In researching his books, King has embarked on a number of expeditions, including trekking through the western Sahara Desert and hiking up Dagushan Mountain on the Tibetan border.

King is an active and leading figure in his local community of Richmond, Virginia, where he is the founder and co-chair of the Virginia Literary Festival, and has served on the boards of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Library of Virginia Foundation. He co-founded and co-chaired the James River Writers non-profit, and helped establish the James River Writers Conference.