Rae Garringer (they/them) is a writer, oral historian, and audio producer who grew up on a sheep farm in southeastern West Virginia, and now lives a few counties away on traditional S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) and Šaawanwaki (Shawnee) lands.

Rae is the founder of Country Queers – an ongoing, multimedia, community-based oral history project and podcast documenting rural and small town LGBTQIA2S+ experiences since 2013. They completed a BA at Hampshire College in 2007 and a MA in Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2017. Rae is a proud alumni of The STAY Project, former contributing editor to Scalawag Magazine, and former Public Affairs Director at Appalshop’s WMMT 88.7 fm. They are a senior Civic Media Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab and a member of the National Council of Elder’s collaborative oral history and podcast team.

Rae is the author and editor of Country Queers: A Love Letter (Haymarket Books, 2024) and the editor of To Belong Here: A New Generation of Queer, Trans & Two Spirit Appalachian Writers (University Press of Kentucky, 2025).

When not working with stories Rae spends a lot of time failing at keeping goats in fences, two-stepping around their trailer, and swimming in the river. They are a hermit introvert who is resolutely committed to rural people and places, most especially the central Appalachian region. They believe deeply in the power of storytelling work made by and for rural communities.