Crowe studied BA fine art at Goldsmiths and MA English at Royal Holloway. He is previously literary editor of AnOther and the founding editor of Butterfly, Zembla and INQUE magazines. He is currently editor of Port, and launched the agency Prose London in 2021. The same year he launched INQUE, a radical 10-year culture magazine, anti-advertising and distribution, which will only ever publish 10 issues. His books include The Secret Lives of Authors (Rizzoli), Writing on the Edge (Rizzoli) and Dead Interviews (Granta).

In 2020 he was voted Magazine Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors.