Rae Bryant, born in Ohio (1972), moved to Maryland then to Pennsylvania before returning to Maryland and settling in the Middletown Valley. She finished a Humanities/Education Bachelors at Pennsylvania State University, where subsequently, she continued her educational studies at the Masters level.
After learning the finer points of literature, art, and music, Bryant then decided to share her learning with teenagers, a most endearing and imaginative group, and quickly came to the understanding that teenagers do know everything, and that, really, everyone else is just a hypothetical voice of reason, as so they should be.
Bryant began teaching ancient and modern literature in 1997. After nearly ten years of corralling teenagers through the public maze, Bryant set aside her sensibilities, left the standard issues of the day, and sought the creative gauntlet.
A background in humanities led her to an enduring appreciation for ancient and modern histories. In researching her first novel, Ficklestick’s Fantastic Adventures: The Mask of Agamemnon, Bryant focused on Greek mythology and nineteenth-century conventions to tell the story of a young girl, Madelyn, and Madelyn’s journey into the ancient myths of the Chthonos. Bryant’s short stories, like Ficklestick’s, are mostly dark suspense and push real characters into fantastic situations. Sometimes they fare well, and sometimes, they fare every which way they can.
When Bryant is not writing articles, short stories, or her current novel, she chases her two children and Aussie around the house. One day, she might even catch them. On occasion, one might find her playing in the mud. Her husband lovingly calls it pottery, but anyone else might call it a creatively wielded mess.
