Jessica Gardner

Rachel Pieh Jones

Journalism, Memoir

Rachel Pieh Jones writes about life at the crossroads of faith and culture and has lived in Somalia and Djibouti since moving to Africa in 2003. Rachel has been published in the New York Times, Christianity Today, Runners World, and many other venues. She has also published several books, including Stronger Than Death: How Annalena Tonelli Defied Terror and Tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa (2019), a tribute to health activist and martyr Annalena Tonelli, the memoir Pillars: How Muslim Friends Led Me Closer to Jesus (2021) which received a Gold Medal in 2022 from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the award winning cookbook Djiboutilicious.

Her writing is influenced by life in the Horn of Africa, raising Third Culture Kids, and adventurous exploration of the natural world. Recently, she completed two seminary degrees, launched a ghostwriting company, and moved back to the United where she is learning how to navigate life and faith in a different country to the one she left over twenty years ago.


Festival Years: 2024