Rachel Elliott is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist. Her debut middle grade graphic novel, THE REAL RILEY MAYES, was released in May of 2022, and became both a Stonewall Honor Book and a Sid Fleischman Humor Honor Book. If you love secret codes, parallel cat universes, and dude-ish girls who act out humorous death scenes, you’ll want to read this book. She is now working on two different graphic novel book series for two different publishers- watch this space for announcements!

Rachel grew up queer during the 1980s in rural Oklahoma. She has worked as a volunteer “zooteen”, a plaster-caster, a crumpet baker, and a children’s museum grant writer. She now lives in Kentucky with her wife, and teaches comics writing at the University of Kentucky. She’s a big fan of dance music, tacos, cats, comedians, and her niece’s ice hockey team. In her spare time, she plays badminton with her wife and draws Martin Short way too much.

Got questions, or wanna say hi? Use the contact form at the bottom of this page to get in touch with Rachel.

Interested in a workshop for your school or community organization? Click here to open the workshop flyer.

Think Rachel’s illustration might be a good fit for a project? You can use the contact form below, or if the project is a book, contact Susan Hawk of Upstart Crow Literary.

Looking forward to meeting you!