David Leach is an award-winning magazine editor, nonfiction author and writing teacher. He lived in Israel and the Czech Republic and is now the Chair of the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria. He has written about adventure travel, the arts, digital culture, and the communal movement for Canadian and international publications. His first book, Fatal Tide: When the Race of a Lifetime Goes Wrong), is a true-life misadventure about the lure and dangers of extreme sports. His second book, a tragicomic travel memoir about the kibbutz movement and dreams of peace in the Middle East called Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel will be published by ECW Press in Fall 2016.