Rachel Cochran earned her Ph.D. in creative writing (specializing in fiction and creative nonfiction) and 19th-century studies from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She studies Victorian and neo-Victorian writing, focusing on the Gothic and crime genres, and is particularly interested in postcolonial, feminist, and queer responses to and reworkings of Victorian history. She has taught classes in composition, creative writing, mystery and the Gothic, children's literature, and women's literature.

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Rachel's debut novel, The Gulf, will be published in summer 2023 by HarperCollins. Short stories and essays by Rachel have appeared in New Ohio Review, The Rumpus, Literary Orphans, and others, and have won the Margaret McKinney, George Mahan, and Virginia Grabill awards in fiction and the New Ohio Review nonfiction contest.

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Rachel currently teaches courses in creative writing, literature, composition and rhetoric, and editing and publishing at Marian University in Indianapolis. Additionally, she serves as assistant editor of Machete, a literary nonfiction series at the Ohio State University Press.