Rebecca Gayle Howell


Rebecca Gayle Howell is an American writer and translator.

Education and career

Howell was born to a working-class family in Lexington, Kentucky on August 10, 1975. She earned her BA and her MA at the University of Kentucky, her MFA at Drew University, and her PhD at Texas Tech University. Howell also apprenticed under the Southern experimental art photographer and writer James Baker Hall, as well as the feminist poet and critic Alicia Ostriker. Other mentors include Carolyn Forché, Nikky Finney, Gerald Stern, Wendell Berry, and Jean Valentine. Among her awards is a 2014 Pushcart Prize, a Mellon Foundation fellowship from United States Artists, and two poetry fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center.
In 2014, she joined the staff of The Oxford American as Poetry Editor. From 2017-2019, she served as the James Still Writer-in-Residence at Hindman Settlement School. In 2019 she became a in the Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky.

Awards