Richelle Putnam is a Mississippi Humanities Speaker, a 2014 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship recipient, and on the Mississippi Arts Commission Teaching Artist Roster. Her YA biography, The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty (The History Press, April 2014), received the 2014 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards Silver Medal and was nominated for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award, non-fiction category. She is also the author of Lauderdale County, Mississippi; a Brief History (The History Press, 2011) and co-author of Legendary Locals of Meridian, Mississippi (Arcadia Publishing 2013). Her book, Mississippi and The Great Depression was nominated for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award, non-fiction category. Her literary work has been published in Pif Magazine, The Copperfield Review, Birmingham Arts Journal and several bestselling anthologies. She is the managing editor of The Bluegrass Standard, Mississippi, and has been published in Town & Gown, Parents & Kids, Well Being, Portico, and Social South magazines and more. Her songs have been featured on many stations and in American Songwriter Magazine. Her mission as a writer and teaching artist is to help children see the beauty of words and to realize their power.