Raised in rural Vermont, Rachel Carter grew up surrounded by trees and mountains. She is the author of three books published with HarperTeen, including This Strange and Familiar Place, Find Me Where the Water Ends, and So Close to You, which was nominated for a Teen Choice Book Award. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in English and Women's Studies, and she currently holds an MFA in nonfiction creative writing from Columbia University. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in The New Republic, Seven Days, The Faster Times, Verbicide Magazine, and Booktrib, where she was a regular contributor for over three years.

In addition to writing, Rachel is an experienced teacher and editor. She has taught undergraduate creative writing at Columbia University and Champlain College, and graduate-level courses in the MFA writing program at Southern New Hampshire University. From 2019 to 2023, she was a visiting professor of fiction at Montclair State University, where she specialized in young adult writing. She still teaches fiction online at Montclair State as well as in the MFA writing program at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She spent two years as the executive director for the Green Mountain Book Festival, where she coordinated a three-day festival for local and national authors. For over fifteen years she has worked as a freelance editor, helping fellow authors publish memoirs, YA novels, romance novels, cookbooks, historical novels, and more. She currently lives in Vermont, where she teaches and writes and works as the editorial director for Onion River Press.