Wells was born Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and was raised in the rural community of Hazel Grove.
After a brief stint at graduate school in Montreal, Quebec, he returned to Iqaluit in 2001 and then to the remote settlement of Resolute, on Cornwallis Island until 2003, eventually relocating to Halifax with his wife, Rachel Lebowitz.
In 2007 he published Sealift, a CD recording of 24 poems from Unsettled; "Achromatope," a letterpress broadside; and After the Blizzard, a limited edition chapbook.
Anything But Hank!, the children's book he co-wrote with Lebowitz, with illustrations by Eric Orchard, was published in the fall.
In 2009, Wells published Track & Trace, his second trade collection of poems, with illustrations by renowned graphic artist Seth.