"I Found God, Became a Pastor And Then Lost My Faith. Here's What I Believe In Now" (Huffington Post, May 2021)
"What My Year of Solo Travel
at 64 Taught Me. "
(Daily Beast, October 2018)
"Cooper's Heart"
(Oprah Daily, July, 2022)
Rebecca Gummere

Writer / Traveler /
Blogger / Professional Wonderer


About Rebecca

In 2017 Rebecca set out on a spiritual pilgrimage, a cross-country trip "Chasing Light" in a small RV with two large dogs and not enough books. She recently completed a memoir about the journey.
She has taught at Appalachian State University, worked for a domestic violence/rape crisis agency, and in another life served three Lutheran pastorates.
Rebecca holds a BA from Wittenberg University, an M.Div. from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and was selected to receive a 2017-2018 North Carolina Artist Fellowship.
She currently divides her time between North Carolina and New Mexico.




Her Writing



Rebecca's essay, “Cooper’s Heart,” published in the April, 2017 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, was included in the anthology,
O’s Little Guide to the Big Questions
(Flatiron Books, 2018).
The essay was named
Best Essay of 2017 at the
Hearst Magazines Editorial Excellence Awards and was reprinted in Oprah Daily in July, 2022.
Rebecca’s work has appeared in the The Razor, the New York Times Tiny Love Stories, Huffington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Daily Beast, Pithead Chapel, the Christian Science Monitor, Crack the Spine, The Gettysburg Review, The Rumpus, the New South Journal, the Waccamaw Journal, and on the Brevity blog.
Her essay, "Pilgrimage," was named a finalist in The Masters Review Anthology Contest, Vol. VII, and appears in the anthology released Fall, 2018.
She is a two-time Pushcart nominee and has been awarded three North Carolina Regional Artist Project Grants (2013, 2015, and 2018). She has also been the recipient of two Fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) and was selected to receive a 2017-2018 North Carolina Artist Fellowship for her memoir-in-progress about her recent nine-month cross-country pilgrimage.
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Rebecca's essay, "The Departure," which appeared in the Summer, 2012 issue of The Gettysburg Review, has been reprinted by Redux Literary Journal.
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Rebecca is accepting a small number of clients for editorial brainstorming, feedback, and writing support. For more information contact her at blueheroneditorial@gmail.com.