Watch as a full video interview on YouTube
Wes Browne lives within the Kentucky River Basin in Madison County, Kentucky. He has practiced law as a criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, and public defender in Appalachia for over 25 years. He's also a coach, a poker player, and helps run his family's pizza shops. His book They All Fall the Same won the 2025 Weatherford Award for Fiction, becoming the first crime novel to earn the distinction. It was also named one of The Best Books of 2025 at mid-year by Book Riot, one of 2025's Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers by Goodreads, one of 2025's Best Books by Read or Dead, and is a Libro.fm Bookseller Pick. His 2020 debut Hillbilly Hustle was named one of Merriam-Webster's Best Lockdown Reads.
We had a great time chatting with Wes and hearing how he always harboured ambitions of being a writer despite his diverse career choices. We hear about how his work as a criminal lawyer helps inform his stories, and why he wants to write stories set in Appalachia.
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