Tanya Hackney, author of Leaving the Safe Harbor: The Risks and Rewards of Raising a Family on a Boat

2021 Firebird Book Award Winner & Author Interview

Tanya Hackney graduated with a B.A. from Middlebury College in 1997, with a major in English and double minor in French and Education. She taught kindergarten in Atlanta, Georgia, then she homeschooled her five children while living full time aboard the sailboat, Take Two. She learned to sail in 2007 and did the coursework for ASA101 and ASA103 after attending a women’s sailing seminar in St. Petersburg, Florida.

She’s lived aboard, traveled, and written for the sailing blog www.taketwosailing.com for more than a decade. Tanya has always had a bad case of wanderlust, taking countless road trips as a child, spending a semester abroad during college, and honeymooning in Central America. In her free time, she plays the ukulele, paints landscapes, and kayaks. She wrote her first story at age six, but Leaving the Safe Harbor is her first published full-length work.