Originally from Tennessee, Rachel Morgan now lives, teaches, and writes in Iowa. She is the author of the chapbook, Honey & Blood, Blood & Honey (Final Thursday Press 2017). Her work appears in several anthologies Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America, Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Anthology, and Rewilding: Poems for the Environment. Most recently work recently appears in 2024 Best New Poets, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, Journal of the American Medical Association, Salt Hill, Shenandoah, DIAGRAM, and Notre Dame Review. Her work has been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and Pushcart Prizes. She's received a fellowship from Vermont Studio Center and was a finalist for 2017 National Poetry Series and the Berkshire Poetry Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Currently she teaches at the University of Northern Iowa and is the Poetry Editor for the North American Review. She is the winner of the 2020 Fineline Competition and a 2024-2025 Iowa Artist Fellow.
News & Press
Rachel's poem "Motherless Afternoon" is included in Best New Poets 2024. Best New Poets is an annual anthology of fifty poems from emerging writers. The anthology began in 2005 under series editor Jeb Livingood with George Garrett serving as the first guest editor. The book is currently distributed nationally as a University of Virginia Press title and produced in cooperation with Meridian, an annual literary magazine from the University of Virginia. 
This free and open access textbook, Elements of Creative Writing, introduces new writers to some basic elements of the craft of creative writing. The authors—Rachel Morgan, Jeremy Schraffenberger, and Grant Tracey—are editors of the North American Review (NAR), the oldest and one of the most well-regarded literary magazines in the United States. This 2nd edition includes several new topics and some new pieces from the NAR. Because the Editors had a hand in publishing these pieces originally, their perspective as editors permeates this book, and they hope that even seasoned writers might gain insight into the aesthetics of the NAR as they analyze and discuss some reasons they think this work is so remarkable—and therefore teachable. |
The Iowa Artist Fellowship provides support to individual artists who demonstrate exceptional creativity in the arts and a commitment to contributing to the vitality of the arts in Iowa. The program advances the artistic careers of Iowans through funding and professional development. Along with four other artists, Rachel was selected as a 2024-2025 Iowa Artist Fellow. 
Fractures is by Canadian composer Frank Horvat, and is an expansive song cycle that draws its inspiration from the environmentally detrimental practice of hydraulic fracking. Soprano Meredith Hall collaborated with Horvat and curated lyrics, including Rachel's poem, "An Orbital Tour of Cities at Night." This tender and contemplative song establishes a link between the energy we routinely utilize in our daily lives and the methods employed to generate it. Horvat aimed for the song to adopt a subtly poignant tone, mirroring the unassuming little actions within a household, while lamenting the harm inflicted by the production of the energy we often needlessly consume. Listen here. 
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