Steve Shell grew up in Wise County, Virginia, right by Bear Creek Reservoir on top of Coeburn Mountain. For 29 years, Steve lived and wrote in those mountains while completing two BAs at the University of Virginia's College at Wise in Mass Communications and English literature. Steve has been fixated on the occult and supernatural happenings since childhood and has been called a Devil Worshipper enough times to prove it. Steve currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he has been a high school English teacher since 2004 and a host and main stage performer for The Moth StorySLAM since 2015. Steve was nationally ranked slam poet for a long time and also does really nerdy stuff like playing in the Society for Creative Anachronism where he studies and teaches medieval bardic traditions and produces The Knowne World Bardcast, a podcast focused on the music and oral traditions of medieval reenactors.