THE FRONT STORY: Rebecca Meacham’s acclaimed debut story collection, Let’s Do, won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction from UNT Press, and she is the author of two award-winning prose chapbooks. Her prose has been arranged to music, translated into Polish, and carved into woodblocks and letter-pressed by steamroller. A native Ohioan, Rebecca holds an M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. As Professor of English at UW-Green Bay, Rebecca was the founding director of the B.F.A. in Writing and Applied Arts, advises the undergrads who create the international journal of the arts Sheepshead Review, and directs Teaching Press at UW-Green Bay, an undergraduate-managed, community-serving hybrid publisher and printing house. Her teaching and community work have been recognized by both University and regional awards.
THE BACKSTORY: Rebecca’s first book, written at age six, was entitled “All About Rocks,” and it was. After exhausting the topic, she asked her mother for better subject matter. “Go write a poem,” her mother said, so Rebecca looked at the sky and wrote a poem: “South Carolina Skies.” While she’s never gotten better at titles, she eventually began writing stories. About people. And, occasionally, animals. Most of them living. Her favorite writers are E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, Dan Chaon, and whoever she happens to be teaching right now.