It’s one thing to write a book; it’s another to live it. Wendell Affield never knew his father. His childhood was punctuated by a volatile mother and an unpredictable stepfather. At twelve, he and his siblings were placed in foster homes, his mother committed to a mental hospital. At sixteen, he rode the rails out west and lived in hobo camps. At seventeen, he enlisted in the navy. At twenty, he was wounded in an ambush while driving a river patrol boat in Vietnam and medevaced home. This lifetime of adventure and instability are the foundation for everything he writes.

After being diagnosed with PTSD in the 90s, Wendell began exploring writing as a way to process everything he had experienced. He studied the writing craft at Bemidji State University. Today, he speaks to groups across Minnesota about PTSD and leads workshops to show veterans and others how to use writing as a way to move forward from their experiences.