Gunners (Kauffman) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—rural Northeastern Ohio, USA
• Education—B.A., Manhattan School of Music; M.F.A., New York University
• Currently—lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia


Rebecca Kauffman is originally from rural northeastern Ohio. She received her B.A. in Classical Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, but as an inherently shy person she decided a career in music was not for her. After graduating, Kauffman stayed in New York City working in public relations. After a few years, she moved to Buffalo, New York, where she worked in a restaurant and taught music. 

In her spare time Kaufmann turned to writing, something she had loved in her childhood—penning  small books with help from her mother, who illustrated and laminated the finished product. As a young adult, she immersed herself again in fiction and realized she had found her calling.

Kauffman sent the first 30 pages of a novel she was working to New York University in the hopes of being accepted into its creative writing program. Although the manuscript was later trashed—"total garbage" as she referred to it in an NPR interview—her application was accepted, and she attained an M.F.A.

Kauffman's debut novel, Another Place You've Never Been, was published in 2016. Two years later came The Gunners, a book placed on many "must read," "eagerly awaited," and "a best book of 2018" lists. She published The House on Fripp Island in 2020.

She currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. (From various online sources, including WMRA Public Radio.)