Rachel Cantor
Rachel Cantor is an American writer of novels and short stories. She grew up in Rome and studied philosophy at Yale University and fiction at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Cantor worked for a long time as a teacher of English and creative writing, and has lived among others in Nigeria, Senegal and Laos. Today she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and she works a a copywriter and editor for non-profit organizations in developing countries.
Rachel Cantor debuted in 2014 with the novel A Highly Unlikely Scenario, an absurd dystopian satire in which she writes about belief and unprejudiced listening. Her most recent work is Good on Paper (2016), a novel about literary translation that focuses on the themes of forgiveness and the possibility of a second chance.
Rachel Cantor's work has been praised by, among others, The New York Times and The Guardian. Her short stories have been published in magazines such as the Paris Review and nominated for The Best American Short Stories.
In June 2017 Rachel Cantor will be in residence for a month in Brussels. She will work on an imaginative retelling of the life of Brontë sisters. Using several narrative forms, including graphic novels, postcards and screenplays, Cantor evokes themes such as solidarity and loneliness in the novel. Her residency takes place in the context of an annual exchange between Passa Porta and Ledig House.