Emily Rapp Black

Emily Susan Rapp was born on July 12, 1974, in Grand Island, Nebraska. Rapp was raised in Laramie, Wyoming; Kearney, Nebraska; and Denver, Colorado; by her father, a Lutheran pastor, and her mother, a school nurse. With her second husband, Rick Louis, she had a son, Ronan Christopher Louis, born on March 24, 2010, who died of Tay-Sachs disease on February 15, 2013.[3] She and her third husband, Kent Black, lived in Madrid, New Mexico,[4] before moving to Redlands, California, where they reside with their daughter, Charlotte (Charlie).[5]

In 1996, Rapp received a Fulbright Fellowship to Seoul, South Korea.[6] She was educated at Saint Olaf College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in religion and women's studies; Harvard University, where she received a Master of Theological Studies; Trinity College, Dublin; and the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow and received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in creative writing.

In 2007, Rapp published her first memoir, Poster Child, with Bloomsbury, detailing her life as an amputee. She wrote, "[The] notion, that happiness and fulfillment hinge upon radical transformation, has followed me throughout my life. From an early age, I had fantasies of being 'healed' of my disability, a miracle I envisioned as rather more Disney than biblical."[8][9]

In 2013, her book The Still Point of the Turning World was published by Penguin Press. The book shares the author's life and experiences following her son Ronan Christopher Louis's diagnosis at nine months old with Tay–Sachs disease.[10] The book was widely and warmly reviewed, including in the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times,[11][12] and was chosen by amazon.com as a Best Book of the Month for March 2013.[13] On March 8, 2013, Rapp appeared on The Today Show to speak about her book, along with her many other public appearances, including a return to Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR.[14][15]

Rapp's short stories, poems, or essays have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, The Sun, The Texas Observer, The Rumpus, and Body & Soul, among other publications. She has kept her own blog, Little Seal, and she has been a regular columnist for the blog Role/Reboot.[16][17][18][19]

Rapp has received many awards for her work, including recognition from The Atlantic Monthly, StoryQuarterly, The Huffington Post, Time magazine, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation, the Jentel Arts Foundation, the Corporation of Yaddo,[20] the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts,[20] and the Valparaiso Foundation,[21] among others.

Rapp has taught writing in the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles; the Taos Writers' Workshop in New Mexico; the MFA program at the University of California, Riverside; and the Gotham Writers' Workshop.[22] She is currently an assistant professor at UC Riverside School of Medicine. She travels frequently to schools and universities to talk about issues of the body, illness, and the creative process.[23]