Renée Branum’s stories and essays have appeared in several publications including The Georgia Review, Narrative Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, Alaska Quarterly Review,and Lit Hub. Her story “As the Sparks Fly Upward” was recently included in Best American Nonrequired Reading’s 2019 anthology. She has earned MFAs in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and nonfiction from the University of Montana. Her work has received first-prize recognition in The Los Angeles Review’s Fall 2016 Nonfiction Contest and The Florida Review’s 2017 Editors’ Awards. She currently lives in Cincinnati, where she is pursuing a PhD in fiction writing and working on her first novel.