Ch. 18 | Rae DelBianco Author of Rough Animals

I had the pleasure of chatting with Rae DelBianco, fondly referred to as ‘that redneck kid author’ of Rough Animals and bookstagram darling - she has almost 20,000 followers on Instagram.

Rae has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson while her debut novel has been called “Breaking Bad meets No Country for Old Men.” VOGUE called it “existentially gripping” and one of the “25 top thriller books of the summer” by The New York Post.

She grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where she raised livestock and founded a beef cattle operation at the age of 14. Rae attended Duke University on a Robertson Scholarship and was later accepted into Curtis Brown’s novel writing program in London, England.

Rae is an alumnus of Tin House’s Summer Workshop and lived with her 88-year old grandmother for nearly four years to finish her first novel (published June 2018).

In today’s conversation we discuss the importance of grit and perseverance - learnings from Rae’s childhood in Bucks County - and how those traits are crucial tools in dealing with the rejection that all writers’ face throughout the arduous publishing process. We also chat about bookstagram and ways to balance social media as a writer.

Rae is as articulate and as poised as her prose. I loved getting the chance to speak with her!