Mariah E. Marsden is a graduate student specializing in the study folklore and narratives — both oral and written. Her work on rural print culture explores the intersection of institutional and vernacular discourses, from contemporary farm books and cooperative magazines to nineteenth-century agricultural bulletins and ledgers. Through archival research and ethnographic interviews, she tackles such topics as rural electrification, courtship narratives and the politics of arrowhead hunting. She also analyzes narratives of place, ranging from the rural region of the Missouri Ozarks to the imagined geography of tabletop gaming spaces.

Marsden earned her MFA in Creative Writing & Media Arts, and she is co-author of Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel. She received her BA in Literature & Theory through the Oxbridge Honors Program at William Jewell College.