I am a visiting professor at Beloit College and will be teaching Introduction to Creative Writing, Creative Writing: Fiction, and Introduction to Literature. I am a first-generation college student and received a B.A. at the University of the Free State in South Africa, MFA at Columbia College Chicago, and Ph.D. in Creative Writing at Ohio University. Prior to joining Beloit College, I was a visiting professor at Wesleyan University and have taught Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Workshops and Craft classes at the undergraduate and graduate level.

I have a literature specialization in Postcolonialism and Crime Fiction, and my research and teaching interests include Crime Fiction in Postcolonial and Transnational societies, Speculative Literature as vehicle for activism and change, Mystery and Detective Fiction in the Creative Writing classroom, and the novella as form. In my classes, we examine how authors use craft to build characters and worlds to create an emotional impact, and how narrative shapes the world around us.

My first novel, The Monster’s Daughter was an American Booksellers’ Association Debut Voices Pick and won the Friends of American Writers Literature Award. I am published in several genres and my short fiction has received a Pushcart nomination. I recently published a paper on Creative Writing Pedagogy in Modern Language Studies, and I am currently working on a third novel set in the Midwest. You can learn more at my personal website: www.michellepretorius.com