Gretchen Michlitsch

Dr. Michlitsch teaches multicultural American literature at Winona State University. 

Gretchen Michlitsch grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota and did her undergraduate work at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN and at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. After selling books for 2 years in Asheville, NC, she returned to the central U.S. for graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin. She earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Her current research explores representations of autonomous independence and of positive liberties in: 

• 19th century slave narratives and abolitionist literature
• 20th century neo-slave narratives 
• literature of African American movement into the western United States

More broadly, Dr. Michlitsch studies African American literature, Native American literature, European American literature and literature of Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Dr. Michlitsch’s critical essays on the writings of Sherley Anne Williams appear in “Australian Feminist Studies” and in “Black Women Writers from A – Z”.  Her work on Nalo Hopkinson has been published in “Femspec”.

In addition to her academic passions, Dr. Michlitsch enjoys: 

• cooking
• hiking and backpacking
• swimming, biking, and running
• gardening, traveling, and reading

She often spends summers in Boston with her husband, Allen.