Rae Cline | Author of Precious Ugly

Represented by
Jennifer Carlson
Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency
267 Fifth Ave. Floor 6
New York, NY 10016
dclagency.com

Emi Battaglia
Emi Battaglia Public Relations
(914)-584-8297
emi@emibattaglia.com
emibattagliapr.com

IG/FB/Sub @raeclineauthor
TikTok @preciousugly

About Rae

Rae Cline is the author of Precious Ugly (7.13 Books, 2026), her debut novel and a work of Appalachian literary fiction. Precious Ugly was a finalist for the Curt Johnson Prose Award and CRAFT’s First Chapters Contest, and was featured at Book Notes, where Largehearted Boy wrote, “Rae Cline’s Precious Ugly may be the year’s most powerful debut, a book that examines domestic violence and generational trauma with a rare empathy that bonds the reader with the protagonist.”

Set in 1985 in Harpers Ferry and Jolo, West Virginia, Precious Ugly tells the story of a thirteen-year-old girl, Clementine, seeking to escape her abusive, alcoholic, charismatic father and desperate to protect her mother. For readers of Bastard Out of Carolina and Demon Copperhead, it is a universal and ongoing story about poverty, addiction, religious charlatans, predators and how children are made to suffer for the sins of their parents. Rae’s short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, North American Review and StoryQuarterly.

Rae was born and raised in the Ohio River Valley and West Virginia. A first-generation college graduate, she received an M.A. in Writing at Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at American University. She has lectured at Johns Hopkins, American University, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and other campuses. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg and lives in New York City. Read more on Substack and Instagram @raeclineauthor and also at raecline.com.

Her story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals (Patasola Press, 2011), was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award and Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction received honors from the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and won second place in the Bartleby Snopes Short Story Contest. Her creative nonfiction was a finalist for the Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize. Her work has also received honors, prizes, scholarships and fellowships from the &NOW Awards, Johns Hopkins, American University, Aspen Writers Foundation and more.

While earning an M.A. in Writing at Johns Hopkins University, Rae was a recipient of the Conference on Craft Fellowship. While receiving her M.F.A. in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from American University, she was the recipient of the Starr and Sartwell scholarships. She has taught at Johns Hopkins, American University, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, The Writer’s Center, Gotham Writers and other programs and campuses.

Born in Marietta, Ohio, Rae’s first childhood home was a trailer. Her father was an Army veteran. Her mother was a hair stylist who raised Rae in overalls, bare feet and sometimes ballet shoes. Rae spent many afternoons on the Ohio River, fishing in a skiff with her grandfather, snapping green beans on the back porch and making cornhusk dolls. She has lived in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C, Florida, and now, NYC.

The mother of two, Rae now splits time between NYC and the Gulf of Mexico with her husband, Rand, and Havanese puppy, Sophi. She writes Openings, a culture and literary criticism column. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg and the Warm Words Project, a homeless and domestic violence outreach initiative. Join Rae on Substack, Instagram and on TikTok.