About Riley
Riley Morsman is a graduate of the
MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University. She writes creative nonfiction, poetry, and inter-genre work that blurs the border between the two. Her work has been published in Barren Magazine, LandLocked Magazine, Fathom Magazine, Kansas City Voices, and Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.
Top, left: photo by Laura Morsman Photography
Bottom, right: photo by Riley Morsman
Described by a colleague as their "lovely extroverted friend of the prairie," Riley is proud to hail from the Sunflower State. Although she grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, she was able to spend several years in the Flint Hills of central Kansas while attending Kansas State University – a place Riley deems is the true home of "spacious skies" and "amber waves of grain."
Unsurprisingly, both the prairie landscape and the concept of "home" find their way into Riley's writing often. Much of her recent work has focused on diversity and symbiosis within prairie species, humans as an inseparable part of the natural world, the beauty of childlike wonder, and the nuanced relationship between nature and nurture within families – all of which stems from Riley's Christian faith and subsequent awe in a God who is simultaneously an incomparable Creator and loving Father.
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Riley currently resides in Shawnee, Kansas with her husband Ben and two sons. When she isn't writing or reading, Riley enjoys doodling in the margins of her journals, hunting for treasures in local thrift stores or garage sales, and putting too much honey in her tea.
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