Rachel Swirsky is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and is a graduate of Clarion West. Swirsky's work, known for its emotional depth and engagement with pressing social issues, has been short-listed for the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Sturgeon Award, and placed second in 2010's Million Writers Award.

She has been published in a range of literary publications, including PANK, the Konundrum Engine Literary Review, and the New Haven Review. Her speculative fiction has appeared in Tor.com, Subterranean Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Fantasy Magazine, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, and has been collected in various year's best anthologies.

Swirsky was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast, serving as editor from 2008 to 2010. She also served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013. Her novella "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window" won the 2010 Nebula Award and was a nominee for the 2011 Hugo Award and the 2011 World Fantasy Award. Additionally, her short story "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" won the 2013 Nebula Award for Best Short Story.

Swirsky is the author of three short stories published as e-books: "Eros, Philia, Agape," "The Memory of Wind," and "The Monster's Million Faces." Her fiction and poetry have been collected in Through the Drowsy Dark (Aqueduct Press, 2010) and a second collection, How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future, was published by Subterranean Press.