Townsend Walker grew up in western Maryland and graduated from Georgetown, New York University, the U.S. Army and Stanford. During a career in banking he lived in New York, Paris, London, Rome, and San Francisco. His novella "La Ronde" was published in 2015. His short stories have appeared in over seventy-five literary journals. “A Little Love, A Little Shove” and “Holding Tight” were nominated for PEN/O.Henry Awards. During a career in finance he wrote "A Guide for Using the Foreign Exchange Market," "Managing Risk with Derivatives," and "Managing Lease Portfolios." He lives in San Francisco and conducts a creative writing workshop at San Quentin Prison.