Afton has always been in books. She was a bookseller at Book Soup in Los Angeles and then the frontlist buyer at Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, where she learned to love books as a kid, before she earned her MFA in nonfiction at University of Idaho. While in Idaho, she taught composition and creative writing, and she acted as editor in chief of Fugue, re-launching the magazine’s book reviews section. More recently, she worked in book marketing and publicity for Belt Publishing and freelanced as a manuscript editor and book industry consultant. Now, she’s an audiobooks acquisitions editor at Spotify.
Afton has guided backpacking trips all over the Sierras, conducted research in an island laboratory off the coast of Southern California, and traveled all over the world studying end-of-life care. Her writing has been graciously supported by Bread Loaf, Centrum, Lighthouse, and Fine Arts Work Center. When she’s not writing, she makes large, sculptural pottery you can find in design studios around Denver. She lives with her wife and dog and calls the Rocky Mountain West her home.