Let's start with saying Wells Tower is not only an author but was also the long-time guitarist of punk band Hellbender. Because naturally, that makes our Crossing Border-heart beat a little faster. This year Tower made his glorious debut with Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, a collection of stories populated mainly with men who have come to a dead end in life, but now and again find a sparkle of hope. The bundle is now on the shortlist for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award, the most important international prize for collected short stories. Tower's work - including many journalistic articles - was published in, among others, The New Yorker, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, The Believer and The Washington Post.

• At this year's Crossing Border magazines McSweeney's, The Believer and Wholphin present Wells Tower as one of America's most interesting new authors. One of his stories is also included in their jubilee collection The United States of McSweeney's: Ten Years of Accidental Classics.
• ‘This arresting debut collection of stories decisively establishes Mr. Tower (...) as a writer of uncommon talent, a writer with Sam Shepard's radar for the violent, surreal convolutions of American society; Frederick Barthelme's keen ear for contemporary slang; and David Foster Wallace's eye for the often hilarious absurdities of contemporary life.' - Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times.
• In The New York Observer you can read a good interview with Wells Tower.