Contact: rwright7@hawaii.edu
Rain Wright received her Ph.D. in English with a focus on creative writing from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She currently teaches writing in the University of Hawai’i system. Rain’s work has appeared in Hawai’i Review, Mud Season Review, Connotations Press: An Online Artifact, Madras Magazine, Summit Magazine, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Entropy Magazine, Dreamers, The Pinch Journal, After Happy Hour Journal, Arc Journal, Minerva Rising, Rising Phoenix Review, and Fugue Journal. Her book The Language of Mothers is forthcoming from Running Wild Press on February 12, 2025. Rain was the Creative Nonfiction Editor for Hawai’i Review (2014-2015) and is the current Prose Editor for Antipodes Journal and on the board as an editor of Ho’olana Publishing. She is working on her second book, Back Into Our Bodies, a hybrid memoir. Back into Our Bodies is a hybrid work of creative nonfiction and poetry and explores aging, the oppression of women’s bodies (all women), and how we build and create relationships and sustain and love radically. Additionally, she is almost finished with her third book, Breathwork, about her stepfather and his music. She is obsessed with the ocean and feels it cures everything.
Publications
Debut Book Publication -- Forthcoming February 2025, Hybrid Work of Creative Nonfiction and Poetry
The Language of Mothers, Running Wild Press
Creative Nonfiction
“Forgetting Nouns,” Fugue Journal Summer/fall 2021
“How You Go,” Minerva Rising, June 2021
“Genealogy of Hair,” Arc Journal, April 2021
“The Grey House Didn’t Speak,” Dreamers, April 2019
“Buttons,” The Pinch Journal, January 2019
“from Everything Turns to Light,” Entropy Magazine, Special Feature “Woven” on Domestic abuse 2018
“The Grey House Didn’t Speak,” Mud Season Review, 2016
“Dinuguan in Captain Cook,” Connotations Press: An Online Artifact, 2016
“Dinuguan in Captain Cook,” Madras Magazine, 2016
“Shrines,” Summit Magazine, 2016
“A Way With Water,” Hawai‘i Review 81: Muliwai, 2015
“Shrines,” Hawai‘i Review 82: Ian MaCMillan, third place winner, 2015
Poetry
“Body Must Remember” Phoenix Rising Press, 2021
“Sisters,” Hawaiʻi Pacific Review, 2016
“Tangles in Organ,” Hawai‘i Review 81: Muliwai, 2016
Fiction
“We Came Up the Hill,” After Hours Journal, 2020
Under Review
“Breathwork” Masters Review Writing Contest
Areas of Interest
Creative Nonfiction
Fiction
Poetry
Critical Ethnic Studies
Awards
Kim Barnes Award for “Forgetting Nouns,” 2021
Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for Graduate Assistants, 2018
LLL Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, 2018
Honorable Mention, Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award, “We Came Up the Hill,” 2017
Stryker Prize, Creative Writing Program, UH Mānoa, “We Came Up the Hill,” 2016
Third place, Saiki Prize, Creative Writing Program, UH Mānoa, “Keʻei Stories,” 2016
Best of the Net Nomination from Mud Season Review for “The Grey House Didn’t Speak,” 2016
Biography Prize, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2014
Abernethy Award in Creative Writing, 2013
Education
Ph.D., University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Department of English, Fall 2018
Dissertation: Everything Turns to Light
Nominated for the University of Hawaiʻi Biography Award, 2019
Will be published as The Language of Mothers by Running Wild Press, spring 2025
M.A. in English, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Creative Writing focus, 2014
M.A Thesis: A Way with Water
Winner of the University of Hawaiʻi Biography Award, 2014
Bachelor of English, Highest Honors, Summa Cum Laude, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2012
Honors Thesis: Struggle and Strength, Highest Honors
Courses
Summer Semester 2024
- ENG-313: Types of Creative Writing
Spring Semester 2024
- ENG-100: Composition I
- ENG-100: Composition I
Fall Semester 2023
- ENG-273: Introduction to Literature: Creative Writing
Spring Semester 2023
- ENG-100A: Composition I
Summer Semester 2023
- ENG-313: Types of Creative Writing