Rebecca Newth, born in Lansing, Michigan, graduated from Michigan State University in the class with other writers that included Jim Harrison, Dan Gerber, and Tom McGuane. She married John A. Harrison who was an able encourager to his brother and to Rebecca. At Harvard where John was a librarian they visited Widener Library and local bookshops in Harvard Square, especially Gordon Carney's shop. Rebecca was first published by Sumac Press, a Press co-founded by Dan Gerber and Jim Harrison. Her second book, A Journey Whose Bones Are Mine, was published by Truck Press, at Yale where John was a librarian. A third book was published by Open Book Press of Station Hill Press. She won an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, an award from the Arkansas Humanities Council, a young adult award from the Arkansas Historical Society, and has published eleven books.