Rachel Barenblat

[2][3] Born in San Antonio, Texas[3][4] in 1975 to Marvin and Liana Barenblat, Rachel moved to New England in 1992 to attend Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

[1][5][4] She holds a BA in religion from Williams and a Masters of Fine Arts in writing and literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars,[3][4] as well as rabbinic ordination from ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and a secondary ordination as a mashpi'ah, also from ALEPH.

In 2000 Barenblat co-founded Inkberry,[4] a literary arts non-profit organization, with Sandy Ryan and Emily Banner.

[3] Barenblat is author of several book-length collections of poetry, including 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia Publishing, 2011), Waiting to Unfold (Phoenicia, 2013), and Texts to the Holy (Ben Yehuda Press, 2018), as well as a variety of liturgical works, most notably her haggadah for Pesach and a volume for mourners called Beside Still Waters co-published by Ben Yehuda Press and Bayit: Building Jewish in 2019.

"[11] Her second book of poetry, Waiting to Unfold, was also published by Phoenicia (2013): Barenblat is also author of several poetry chapbooks, among them the skies here (Pecan Grove Press, 1995), What Stays (Bennington Writing Seminars Alumni Chapbook Series, 2002), chaplainbook (Laupe House Press, 2006),[4] and the self-published Through, a collection of miscarriage poems (2009.)