Wes Blake is the author of PINEVILLE TRACE—Publishers Weekly BookLife Editor’s Pick, winner of the Etchings Press Novella Prize, finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel, Feathered Quill Book Award for Debut Author, National Indie Excellence Award for Book Cover Design, and featured on Deep South Magazine’s Reading List—from Etchings Press, Univ. of Indianapolis (2024). Pulitzer Prize finalist author Lee Martin called him a “writer to watch,” and SmokeLong Quarterly described his debut novel as an “utterly compelling read.” His novel ANTENNA was a semifinalist for the UNO (Univ. Of New Orleans) Press Book Prize and Sundress Publications Prose Open Reading Period. Wes’ CNF memoir of place-in-essays HAZELGREEN AND OTHER HAUNTS was a semifinalist for the 2025 Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize and the OSU (Ohio State Univ.) Non/Fiction Collection Prize. His fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, storySouth, Louisiana Literature Journal, Blood & Bourbon, Book of Matches, Jelly Bucket, and White Wall Review, among others, and he holds an MFA from the Bluegrass Writers Studio. He studied writing under Gurney Norman, James Baker Hall, Julie Hensley, R. Dean Johnson—and very briefly under Denis Johnson. He has written obituaries, worked in a Cajun restaurant, sold advertising, and taught writing to high school and college students. He lives in Nonesuch, Kentucky, with his wife and cats, where they’ve planted over 100 trees. Learn more at wesblake.com or Instagram (@wesblake_ ).
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Contact:
Author email: wesblake7@gmail.com
Social Media: @wesblake_