Dr. Rachael Peckham earned a B.A. degree in English from Hope College in 2002, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Georgia College and State University in 2004 and a Ph.D. in creative writing from Ohio University in 2009. She is the author of Alight: Flights of Prose (Uncollected Press) and Muck Fire: Prose Poems and Other Cultivations (forthcoming from Compass Press). Dr. Peckham’s articles, essays, and poems have received other awards and distinctions, including two honorable mentions in the Best American Essays series, the ½ K Prize at Indiana Review, the Orison Anthology Nonfiction Award, and the Special Feature Literary Nonfiction Award at Crab Orchard Review. Since joining the English Department at Marshall University in 2009, Dr. Peckham has been awarded a Distinguished Artists and Scholars Award for junior faculty; a Pickens-Queen Teaching Award; a Hedrick Teaching Fellowship; the Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award; and a Notable Alumni Award from Ohio University. In 2023, she delivered the commencement address for Marshall’s Winter Commencement, and she was recently named a finalist for the 2024 West Virginia Professor of the Year, sponsored by the Faculty Merit Foundation.