Chris J. Rice is a Missouri born writer/artist settled in Los Angeles after earning an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. A former foster child, Chris has worked as a field hand, a nurse’s aide, a preschool teacher, a newspaper researcher, a corporate trends analyst, and a public librarian. Her writing has appeared in Necessary Fiction, Pithead Chapel, The Citron Review, and [PANK] Online. Roxane Gay selected her short story “The Lid” for inclusion in wigleaf’s top 50 (very) short fiction 2015. Pithead Chapel recently nominated her essay “Where She Came From” for a Pushcart Prize. “Too Much Hope” is excerpted from RAMBLER AMERICAN: AN AUTO- FICTION, a completed work that is looking for an agent/publisher.