Rashmi Vaish is a fiction writer, essayist, and poet. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and a Certificate in Writing & Publishing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2020.
She is the Associate Fiction Editor at The Maine Review and was an Assistant Poetry Editor at Hunger Mountain for the 2020-2021 issue. Rashmi is currently serving as the Interim Co-Director of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College Of Fine Arts.
She began her study of creative writing with the Eckerd College Writers’ Conference, moving on to Stanford Continuing Studies, where she studied poetry and short fiction extensively. She also studied poetry in Annie Finch’s Poetcraft Circles.
Before her study of creative writing, Rashmi’s career was in journalism. She began at The Metropolis on Saturday, a Times of India publication in Mumbai, going on to the internet divisions of The Times of India and The Pioneer, returning to print with the Hindustan Times Sunday Magazine in New Delhi, and finally The TimesLedger Newspapers in Queens, New York, where she was assistant managing editor and production chief for a chain of then 16 weeklies. As a journalist, she has written and edited features ranging from arts and culture to health, science, and lifestyle. One of her features won first place for best feature story in the Suburban Newspapers of America Editorial Contest in 2005 and also won third place in feature story category in the New York Press Association Better Newspaper Contest in the same year.
Born and raised in India, Rashmi now lives and writes in New York State’s North Country. She is working on her first novel.