Andre Dubus III grew up in mill towns on the Merrimack River along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border and began writing fiction at 22. He is the author of five books: The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. A New York Times "Editor's Choice," Townie movingly describes a painful, mostly fatherless youth, and Andre's later coming to terms with his youthful violence and with his father. The book was on numerous best non-fiction book lists for 2011. During his career, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Magazine Award for fiction, The Pushcart Prize, and several other prestigious awards.