My name is Towles. I’m a writer.

Often, when I tell people I’m a writer, they ask, “What do you write?” Right now, I write whatever anyone will pay me to write. But what I really love is narrative journalism, essay and poetry, and if I could spend my life doing any combination of those three things and make enough money to feel legitimate (which, I’ll admit, isn’t a lot) – I’d die happy.

Until just recently, I hadn’t been able to own being a writer, and even now, after completing an MFA in creative nonfiction, I feel a little shy about telling anyone that’s what I do, or who I am.

I think I feel this way because I hold writers – real writers, established writers, writers who do indeed make a living putting words together – in such high regard. I don’t quite feel worthy of the title.

I also feel a little shy about admitting this because it is, for me, an intimate detail. I might as well tell anyone who asks what I do that I pray, or that I am a pray-er.

Nevertheless, I’m trying to get used to the awkwardness of it all.

Welcome to my blog.