Ross Howell graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and earned an A.M. degree in English and American Literature from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.

At UVA, Howell won the Gray-Carrington Scholarship Award, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, the Raven Award, and had a prize story in a national collegiate writing competition sponsored by The Atlantic Monthly. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he received a Danforth Foundation fellowship to attend graduate school.

Over the past four years, Howell taught ENG 110, “Writing: Argument and Inquiry” and ENG 255, “Write an American Best Seller” in Elon's Department of English. His fiction has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Sewanee Review, Gettysburg Review, and other magazines. FORSAKEN is his first novel. Pre-registration before October 19th is highly recommended for all attendees.