Racquel Sarah Henry fell in love with words when she began reading at the age of three. As a young girl, she spent much of her time in libraries and bookstores. In 2003, Racquel went on to The University of South Florida to study creative writing. She graduated with a B.A. in both criminology and creative writing (with a concentration on fiction). After realizing her love for writing and wanting to teach other writers, Racquel attended Fairleigh Dickinson University where she earned an MFA in creative writing. While at FDU, Racquel served as a reader for the university’s literary magazine, The Literary Review. Since then, Racquel has stayed committed to her writing and editing career.
In 2009 she co-founded Black Fox Literary Magazine which she now owns, operates, and serves as Editor in Chief. In 2011 Racquel joined The Florida Writers Association and in 2012 served on the editorial committee for FWA’s short story collection, Let’s Talk. She was also a copy editor and columnist for the national newsletter, La Mensajera. She is constantly trying to think of ways to help other writers through her writing studio, Writer’s Atelier. Writer’s Atelier has allowed her to conduct classes and workshops to teach writers about the craft of fiction. It has also allowed her to help writers with editing by providing feedback on their current writing projects.
Racquel enjoys submersing herself in all things literary. She’s a fellow YA Chick, in addition to a freelance ghostwriter for romance novels and nonfiction. She spent two years as a board member of The Jack Kerouac Project, an Orlando-based writing residency program, and one year as a contributing editor for Burrow Press’ Fantastic Floridas.
Racquel’s fiction, nonfiction, and poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Voice Magazine, The Scarlet Sound, Blink-Ink, The Rusty Nail, Freight Train Magazine, Zest Literary Journal, Ghost Parachute, Lotus-eater Literary Magazine, Reaching Beyond the Saguaros: A Collaborative Prosimetric Travelogue (Serving House Books, 2017), Thrill of the Hunt Anthology: Welcome to Whitebridge (Palmas Press, 2017), We Can’t Help it if We’re From Florida (Burrow Press, 2017), and more. She is the author of the novellas, Holiday on Park, Letter to Santa, Christmas in Cardwick, Meet Me in December, The Write Gym Workbook, and The Writer’s Atelier Little Book of Writing Affirmations (Writer’s Atelier Books, 2018) among others. Racquel is currently working on editing her fourth novel. She enjoys eating cake, music of all genres, crunching leaves, and obsessing over Hallmark Christmas movies.
