Mel Dagg is the author of three short story collections, Same Truck, Different Driver, Women on the Bridge, and Four Wheel Drift: Stories New and Selected. He has lived and worked in many parts of Canada as a teacher and technical writer, and has a PhD in Canadian literature from the University of New Brunswick.

Mel was born in Vancouver, BC, and raised on Vancouver Island. As a young man he worked as a deckhand on the famous ocean-going towboat Lloyd B. Gore. He and his wife currently divide their time between Mexico and Vancouver Island. Passage on the Cardena is Mel's first novel.