Johnny Townsend earned an MFA in fiction writing from Louisiana State University. He has published stories and essays in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Humanist, The Progressive, Glimmer Train, and in many other publications. His collections of unorthodox Mormon short stories have been named to Kirkus Reviews' Best of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. He has written one non-fiction book, an account of the arson at the UpStairs Lounge, where 32 people died in a French Quarter gay bar on Gay Pride Day in 1973. He is also an associate producer for the documentary Upstairs Inferno.