Rebecca Elswick is the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners. She lives in southwestern Virginia with her husband, three children and, at last count, five dogs. She teaches English and creative writing and is a consultant for the Appalachian Writing Project at the University of Virginia's College at Wise. Rebecca's work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including A Cup of Comfort for Dog Lovers II, Draft Horse, The Notebook and Broken Petals, and one of her stories was a finalist in the New Southerner Literary Contest. Publishers Weekly praised her debut novel, Mama's Shoes, as "an intricate and beautiful landscape...this is a well-tuned and complex work." Rebecca is at work on a new novel, The Dream is the Truth.