Creative Types: Wes Browne

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While he has worked as a criminal defense attorney for a quarter century and is part of the team that revived the popular Apollo Pizza pie chain based in Richmond, Ky., Wes Browne is perhaps best known lately as an emerging Kentucky author being championed by everyone from Silas House to “The Walking Dead” creator Tony Moore.

Browne’s literary passion began from an early age with his mother, who always encouraged him to read. But it wasn’t until fourth grade when that obsession really took off during creative writing sessions in school, where he’d often take 200-word prompts and return with extravagant 2,000 word treatises. He says this resulted in his instructors telling him they’d assign more creative writing time — and even read his stories to the class — if he was able to behave and stay on track with everything else.

“It was great because I loved hearing my work be read even more than I enjoyed writing it,” admits Browne. “These stories were really long and involved and left my teachers awestruck because I was a kid who was smart, but not very disciplined, but once they started giving me those assignments I went crazy with it.”

After moving to Kentucky from his native Michigan in the late ’90’s to pursue a law degree at the University of Kentucky, Browne continued his writing endeavors, penning four books that ultimately got shelved before his fifth — the 2020 crime novel “Hillbilly Hustle” — finally landed a publishing deal with West Virginia University Press to push it across the finish line. 

Browne followed up that success with yet another crime novel, “They All Fall The Same,” which hit book shelves in January 2025 and went on to earn several honors. Among them were a mention on Goodreads.com’s list of “Biggest Mysteries & Thrillers” and Book Riot’s “Best Books of the Year” list, as well as the distinction of being the first-ever crime novel to win the Weatherford Award for Fiction in the organization’s 55-year history. 

According to Browne, his slow burn to success illustrates the importance of persistence and always wanting to chip away so you can hone your craft.

“One of the most important qualities you can have as a writer is patience,” says Browne. “One of the reasons I finally got published was I got better at it by writing regularly and working that muscle. None of those books or words I wrote before were wasted because the whole time I was getting better as a writer while doing it.”

We recently caught up with Browne to talk about his literary roots, how he focuses on writing for Kentucky first and the world next, upcoming projects, and more.

Your writing contains several nods to your work in law and as a pizza shop owner. Tell me about why it’s important for you to tie together all of those elements of your life in your work? 

When I took off as a writer is when I finally started embracing that overlap. My first [published] novel, “Hillbilly Hustle,” was conceived in 2014 during a novel generation class at the Hindman Settlement School. I was auditing a class given by Amy Greene where we had to develop a story idea and characters. A few years earlier, another family and I had bought the defunct Apollo Pizza in Richmond, which back in the day was famous for selling dime bags of marijuana under the table every time someone ordered a spinach special. That concept ended up being the basis of the book.

I was also able to lean on my more than 20 years [of law experience] mostly as a criminal defense attorney, with all the characters I’ve met and wild stories I’ve heard. I took even more advantage of both in my second book, “They All Fall the Same.” It’s been fun embracing being a crime writer, which is honestly what I think I’m best at. But I didn’t know that until I stumbled into it.

In addition to those ties, I’ve heard you also like to sneak in Kentucky-inspired ‘Easter eggs’ throughout your writing as well.

I do, but a lot of it doesn’t come until the later rounds of revision. One cool Kentucky Easter egg is that Tyler Childers has a cameo in both my books. Over a decade ago he famously walked into the Steam Engine — our train-themed pizza shop in Irvine, Ky. — asking to play. We didn’t book musicians at the time, but I knew him and told our staff to let him play all he wanted. So, in “Hillbilly Hustle” there’s this red-haired mountain man wielding a guitar covered in stickers that comes inside the shop to inquire about playing before losing interest and walking out.

Then there are others that come from revisions, which will be the case when “Hillbilly Hustle” gets a reprint from the University Press of Kentucky next year. The original had a reference to J.K. Rowling and a rare edition of one of the “Harry Potter” books that I no longer felt comfortable using for a variety of reasons, so when this opportunity came about I checked to see if we could swap it with a signed first edition of “The Walking Dead” by Kentucky author Tony Moore. It even goes on to reference how he’d set up at local punk shows around town in the early 2000’s selling [his books], so I did some research to find band names that would’ve been playing then to further contribute to the lore of it all. At the end of the day, I want to write for Kentucky first and the world next, and small things like that go a long way toward making that happen.

What else do you have in the works? 

In addition to the “Hillbilly Hustle” reprint, I’ll also have a collection of short stories coming out next year from the University Press of Kentucky. Then we’re also in the process of shopping my new novel called “29 Palms Highway,” which is another crime book, but my first that’ll be set outside Kentucky — going instead for the Nevada and California desert with a romantic subplot. I’m excited to share more about it with folks soon.

Stay up-to-date with Browne’s work and upcoming appearances at WesBrowneAuthor.com.