Printable view of Marcy Rae Henry

Listed as:

Poet, Fiction Writer, Creative Nonfiction Writer

Public address:

Chicago, IL

Illinois US

Bio:

Marcy Rae Henry is a Latina/e born and raised in Mexican-America/The Borderlands. While on deferment from Columbia Law School she lived in Europe, where she took classes at la Universidad de Granada, and Asia, where she earned certification for Ancient Thai Massage in Kathmandu, Nepal. After riding a motorcycle through Greece, Turkey, Syria and Jordan (at times presenting as a boy), she volunteered for Middle East Peace Process activities in Israel/Palestine. She has studied Buddhism in centers from Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez, New Mexico to Chanmyay Yeiktha in Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar), The November Retreat at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal and El Centro de Meditación de Vilcabamba, Ecuador. In India, where she lived for a couple of years, she studied at the Tushita Meditation Centre and received teachings and initiations from His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. M.R. Henry is an associate editor for RHINO and teaches at Wright College Chicago, a Hispanic Serving Institution, where she serves as Coordinator of the Latin American Latino/x Studies Program and received Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society’s 2023-2024 Outstanding Educator Award. She has participated in multidisciplinary events, experiments, conferences and festivals across the U.S. and Asia. Her visual art appears in Santa Fe Literary Review, Waxwing, Arkana, The William & Mary Review, Mom Egg Review, Cauldron Anthology and Thimble Magazine.

Gives readings:

Yes

Travels for readings:

Yes

In which languages are you fluent?:

Spanish

Born in:

Pueblo, CO

Colorado

Website:

https://www.marcyraehenry.com [2]

Prizes won:

MRae's poetry collection, death is a mariachi, won the 2024 May Sarton NH Poetry Prize and was published in June 2025. The fiction collection, Southwest Stories: Martinis and the Magnetic Fields, was chosen by Kaveh Akbar as a finalist for the 2024 George Garrett Fiction Prize. Her chapbook dream life of night owls won the 2023 Open Country Chapbook Prize and was published in November 2024: https://www.opencountrypress.com/ [3]. Her poetry has received a Pushcart Prize nomination, was a finalist in River Styx's International Poetry Contest, Puerto del Sol's Annual Poetry Contest, and Marsh Hawk's Poetry Awards. Other writing was featured in the 2023 Best New Poets anthology, longlisted for the Disquiet Literary Prize, and received Honorable Mention in the New Millennium Writing Awards. Her fiction received 1st place in Suburbia's 2021 Novel Excerpt Contest and was selected as a finalist in Black Lawrence Press' Black River Chapbook Competition, a semi-finalist in the American Short(er) Fiction Contest and longlisted for the Irish Fish Flash Fiction Contest. Her nonfiction was chosen as a semi-finalist in Black Lawrence Press' Black River Chapbook Competition and shortlisted for Fish’s Memoir Prize.

Other awards include an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and a City of Chicago Community Arts Assistance Grant. Residencies include Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi, Italy and The Chicago Cultural Center.

Identifies as:

Latino/Latina/Latinx

LGBTQ