Rebecca Irene has called San Francisco, Washington DC, Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, London, and Paris home. After a hiatus living aboard a vintage yawl (with her husband, two boys, and two cats), her family re-located to Maine, land of her ancestors.

 

Following family tradition (grandmother/mother/great aunt/aunt), Rebecca Irene wrote her first poems when she was seven, but then spent years trying to convince herself she was not another versifier. After graduating from Swarthmore College, she turned her back on the writing life, and worked a multitude of jobs— from Manager of a Times-Square Starbucks to Fourth-grade Teacher, from Interior Designer to Restaurant Owner. Finally coming to her senses, Rebecca Irene received her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2018. She now spends time (carved out from her roles as mother, wife, and worker) on revising her first-book manuscript: Weigheth The Worth. (Recurring themes include scriptural mandates for women, and the service-industry blues.) She also continues research for an expanded version of her critical thesis: The Female-Creative & The Cicada-Complex— an examination of women writers who wrote their best poetry late in life, and uses the cicada trope to assess the consequences of ingrained misogyny on creative output.

 

After reading many years for Hunger Mountain and The Maine Review , she accepted the role of Poetry Editor at The Maine Review in 2019. She works closely with a dream team of two associate editors, and numerous poetry readers. She helps poets edit/revise their work for publication whenever possible. 

 

Her work is forthcoming or published in Passengers Journal, Spillway, RHINO, Pidgeonholes, Carve Magazine, Juked, The Atlanta Review, and elsewhere. She received a fellowship from the Norton Island Artist Program, and residencies from Sundress Academy for the Arts, and Hewnoaks. Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance selected her as a 2020 Monson Arts Fellow. She was awarded a 2023 Snowed-In Residency by The Kirkland Art Center & The Garret on the Green. She supports her word-addiction by waitressing and occasional teaching.