About Rachel
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Rachel R. Baum is a Best of the Net nominated poet, writer, editor, dog behaviorist, blogger, librarian and crafter.
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She chaired the Committee that selected the first Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs. She is the founder of the Moving Mountains Poets Group and the Saratoga Peace Pod. Rachel serves on the Editorial Board of The Third Age Press, publisher of The Apple Tree. She is the founder and host of the Saratoga Senior Center Poetry Open Mic. With local poet Rhonda Rosenheck, she launched the Capital Region Poems on Wheels program, bringing the beauty of poetry and connection to isolated homebound seniors in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties. Beginning in 2025, she created the Saratoga Writers Center Collective, a group of community-minded literary people, to begin the process of establishing a Writers Center for Saratoga Springs, NY
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Rachel is the editor of Funeral and Memorial Service Readings, Poems and Tributes (McFarland, 1999), named Best Non-Fiction by Today's Librarian. She has two poetry chapbooks: Richard Brautigan's Concussion (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and How to Rob a Convenience Store (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024). A third poetry chapbook Secrets She Has Saved will be published by Rockwood Press in 2026.
As a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, she was the At Home Dog Trainer, LLC for 15 years. Her blog posts for the (Albany, NY) Times Union as BARK! Confessions of a Dog Trainer can be found by clicking on the Blog menu heading above. Prior to starting her business, she was Assistant Dean of the College of Computing and Information at the University at Albany. She served as President of the New York Library Association in 2007.
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Rachel has a Masters degree from the University of Michigan, a Bachelors degree from the University of Houston, and a Certificate of Publishing from Rice University.
She is an APA-ranked pool player, licensed private pilot, kayak angler, Adirondack hiker, volunteer, crafter and knitter/crocheter. She lives in Saratoga Springs, New York with her dogs Tennyson and George Eliot.