A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Rebecca Gayle Howell holds degrees from the University of Kentucky, an MFA from Drew University, and a PhD from Texas Tech University. Her first book, Render / An Apocalypse (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2013), was selected by Nick Flynn for the press's First Book Prize. American Purgatory (Black Spring Press Group, 2017) was chosen by Don Share for the Sexton Prize. She translated Amal al-Jubouri's Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation. Named a United States Artists Fellow in 2019, she received the Aiken Taylor Award in 2025 and edits poetry for Oxford American.
