The Short Story

Wells Tower was born in Vancouver, British Colombia, in 1973 but grew up in North Carolina. Having been part of a punk band for six years during his young adult years, many of his story characters have a similar hippie twist or shade.

 

It wasn't until after graduating with an MFA from Columbia University that Tower began pursuing a career in writing in earnest. His first opportunity came when he was able to sell a story on a carnival worker to the Washington Post Magazine.

 

From there, he has written for the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, and McSweeney's. In 2009, Tower published a collection of short stories titled Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned which was a finalist for The Story Prize.