Ryan Harper is a visiting assistant professor in New York University's Religious Studies Program. He is the author of The Gaithers and Southern Gospel: Homecoming in the Twenty-First Century (University Press of Mississippi, 2017), and the poetry chapbook, Memphis Left at Cairo (Finishing Line Press, 2013). His writing has appeared in the American Journal of Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Review Americana, Huffington Post, Killing the Buddha, and elsewhere. A native of southeast Missouri, Ryan lives in New York City.