Rankin was raised in the Mississippi Delta and in Oxford, Mississippi. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a degree in English and Creative Writing.
Rankin was raised in the Mississippi Delta and in Oxford, Mississippi. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a degree in English and Creative Writing.
His professional background includes marketing and operations internships at CNN headquarters in Atlanta and in the Washington, D.C. office of former United States Senator Thad Cochran. Rankin is the recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s first annual residency at Rivendell Writers Colony.Rankin is the author of the 2018 book, Catfish Dream: Ed Scott’s Fight for his Family Farm and Racial Justice in the Mississippi Delta, published by the University of Georgia Press as part of the Southern Foodways Alliance Studies in Culture, People, and Place series.
For the past eight years, he has held communications, community engagement, and leadership positions at the Mississippi Museum of Art under the guidance of Director Betsy Bradley. Rankin makes the move to Ocean Springs with his wife Caroline and son Julian.