Rae Garringer (they/them) is a writer and oral historian who grew up on a sheep farm in southeastern West Virginia, and now lives a few counties away on traditional S’atsoyaha and Šaawanwaki lands.
Rae is the founder of Country Queers – a multimedia, community-based oral history project and podcast documenting rural and small town LGBTQIA2S+ experiences since 2013. They are a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab, a member of the Waymakers Collective Steering Committee, and the Oral History Project Director at Out in the Open. They hold a BA in History from Hampshire College and MA in Folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
They have worked to support community based oral history and storytelling projects across the country over the past decade including as the Public Affairs Director at WMMT 88.7fm, Podcast Producer and Oral History Coordinator with the National Council of Elders, Community Outreach Coordinator with Mapping Trans Joy, and consultant for the ACT UP D.C. Oral History Project.
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 one of the oldest rivers in the world. They are a hermit introvert who is resolutely committed to rural people and places, most especially the central Appalachian region.
