Lauren Rhoades

Lauren Rhoades is a writer and editor living in Jackson, Mississippi. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Rhoades moved to Mississippi in 2013 to serve with AmeriCorps. She later started Mississippi's first fermentation company, and served as director of the Eudora Welty House & Garden. She is currently deputy director at the Mississippi Arts Commission. In 2022, Rhoades founded Rooted Magazine, a bestselling Substack dedicated to telling unfiltered stories about what it means to call Mississippi home. Since then, she's published 150+ interviews with Southern creatives and changemakers, hosted monthly book clubs with award-winning and debut authors, and platformed writing that speaks to the depth and complexity of Mississippi. Rhoades' essays have been published in Literary Hub, Southwest Review, Salvation South, and Country Roads Magazine, among others. She holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado and an MFA in creative writing from the Mississippi University for Women. Rhoades' debut memoir, Split the Baby: A Memoir in Pieces (Belle Point Press, 2025) was the recipient of the 2026 memoir award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.