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 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. Rae is a senior Civic Media Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab, a member of the Mapping Trans Joy team, and producer of The NERVE! Conversations with Movement Elders, a podcast from the National Council of Elders.
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.
