Rachel McPherson grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia. After earning her MAT in English Education, Rachel worked as an educator in a variety of positions. She’s led writing workshops for incarcerated students and periodically teaches a self-designed curriculum on Shakespeare and AAVE (African American Vernacular English) in underserved high school classrooms. She also taught ESL at Kirkwood Community College and EFL in Barcelona, Spain, where she lived for seven years. Rachel co-produced her father’s non-fiction collection On Becoming an American Writer (Godine, 2023), the Spanish translation of Elbow Room (Consonni, 2022), and is now in discussions with Library of America about a volume that brings together all of James Alan McPheron’s short fiction. Currently, Rachel works as a teaching artist for a non-profit theater, leading Shakespeare workshops in 1st grade classrooms. She also works as an improv actor (simulated patient) and medical communication facilitator at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Rachel lives in Iowa City, Iowa, where she is proud to serve on the Board of Parks and Recreation and volunteer for local and state politicians-the good kind.