About

Ralph Pennel was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and grew up in Illinois just outside of Chicago. Ralph completed his undergraduate degree at Knox College before moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to pursue a MFA at Hamline University, where he studied with poets Deborah Keenan, Joyce Sutphen, and Jim Moore. Ralph’s first full-length collection of poetry, A World Less Perfect for Dying In, was published by Cervena Barva Press in 2015, and his poems, stories, and works of nonfiction have appeared in journals such as The Ocean State Review, The Iowa Review, Literary Orphans, F(r)iction, Thrice Fiction, Reality Beach, Elm Leaves Journal, and more. Ralph has also published numerous reviews of books with such publications as Tarpaulin Sky, and, most notably, Rain Taxi Review of Books. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart, a Best of the Net Award, the Best Small Fictions Anthology, and he was twice a finalist for Somerville Poet Laureate. Ralph is a founding editor and the fiction editor for the online literary journal, Midway Journal (www.midwayjournal.com), originally published out of St. Paul, Minnesota, and now in its sixteenth year of business. Ralph served on the board of the New England Poetry Club–the oldest club of its kind in the US, whose long, storied membership boasts such names as Amy Lowell, Robert Frost, and Conrad Aiken. Ralph has taught writing and literature at several colleges and universities in the Midwest and the East Coast.