avg_rating: 4.13
name: Maggie Messitt
about: An independent narrative and immersion journalist, Maggie Messitt has spent the last decade reporting from inside underserved communities in southern Africa and Midwestern America. Typically focused on complex issues through the lens of every day life, her work is deeply invested in rural regions, social justice, and environmental sustainability. A dual-citizen, Messitt lived in South Africa from 2003 to 2011. During this time, she was a long-form reporter, a newspaper editor, and the founding director of a writing school for rural African women. A 2015 Kenyon Review Peter Taylor Fellow, 2016 Scholar-in-Residence at Bowers Writers House, and 2016 Clayton B. Ofstad Endowed Writer-in-Residence, Messitt is working to complete her PhD in creati An independent narrative and immersion journalist, Maggie Messitt has spent the last decade reporting from inside underserved communities in southern Africa and Midwestern America. Typically focused on complex issues through the lens of every day life, her work is deeply invested in rural regions, social justice, and environmental sustainability. A dual-citizen, Messitt lived in South Africa from 2003 to 2011. During this time, she was a long-form reporter, a newspaper editor, and the founding director of a writing school for rural African women. A 2015 Kenyon Review Peter Taylor Fellow, 2016 Scholar-in-Residence at Bowers Writers House, and 2016 Clayton B. Ofstad Endowed Writer-in-Residence, Messitt is working to complete her PhD in creative nonfiction and her next book, a hybrid of investigation and memoir. Longlisted for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award (South Africa) and an INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist, The Rainy Season is her first book. ...more