A native of Yorkshire, England, Rachael Preston earned a Master's degree in English Literature from Queen's University. She also studied at Emily Carr College in Vancouver. She has worked as an ESL professor at Asia University in Tokyo and co-wrote a series of video scripts produced for classroom use. She has also taught English in Vancouver; London, England; and the Czech Republic, and has worked as an advertising copywriter and editor. She currently teaches creative writing both in class and online for Mohawk and Sheridan colleges. In 2005, Rachael Preston assumed the position of Chair of gritLIT, Hamilton's writers' festival, and has since expanded the festival's mandate to include children's writers, genre authors, and graphic novelists. She is also a judge for the Power of the Pen, the Hamilton Public Library Creative Writing Competition. In 2001, she won the Arts Hamilton Literary Award and was nominated for the Journey Prize. Rachael Preston is also the author of the critically acclaimed novel Tent of Blue (Goose Lane Editions, 2002).