Don Winslow

Biography

Don Winslow is a #1 New York Times bestselling author widely considered one of the greatest crime writers of his generation. The son of a sailor and a librarian, Winslow grew up in Rhode Island with a love for storytelling. Before writing full-time, he lived an adventurous life that fueled the realism in his novels, working as an investigator in Times Square and a photographic safari leader in Kenya. In 2022, Winslow announced his retirement from writing to focus on political activism and video-making. However, in January 2026, he surprised fans by returning with The Final Score, a collection of six crime novellas. His works are often described as "modern epics," famously using classical literature, like the Iliad and the Aeneid, as the structural backbone for his gritty stories about the American drug war and organized crime.