Jennifer Maritza McCauley, M.F.A., Ph.D.

Biography

Jennifer Maritza McCauley teaches literature and creative writing in the Literature program. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio, CantoMundo and Sundress Academy for the Arts and awards from Best of the Net, Independent Publisher Book Awards, and Academy of American Poets. She also received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention. 

Dr. McCauley received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University and her Ph.D. in English (Literature and Creative Writing) from the University of Missouri. She is presently a fiction editor at the literary journal Pleiades and was formerly a contest editor and poetry editor at The Missouri Review. Her books include the cross-genre collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (2017, Stalking Horse Press) and When Trying to Return Home (2023, Counterpoint), a short story collection.

Curriculum Vitae

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Areas of Expertise

• Creative writing
• Poetry, fiction, non-fiction
• Hybrid forms
• African-American literature
• 20th and 21st century American literature
• Afro-Latinx/Latin American literature
• Latinx/Latin American literature

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Publications

• SCAR ON/SCAR OFF. Stalking Horse Press. October 2017. (Book)  
• “Lost in Montjuïc, After Losing” “Descansar.” Zone 3, Austin Peay State University. May 2020. 
• “Fore-Mothers.” Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, Illinois State University. January 2021. 
• “Mama Diaspora,” “Help I’m Fine!” Columbia Journal, Columbia University. February 2020.   
• “Afro-Colossus.” The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4: LatiNEXT, Haymarket Books. April 2020.  
• “Blackout/Apagón.” Puerto Rico en mi corazón, Anomalous Press. August 2019.   
• “Torsion.” Vassar Review, Vassar College. May 2017.  
• “Loriella is Dead.” Academy of American Poets/Poets.org (republished) and Puerto del Sol, New Mexico State University. March 2017 
• “Baby Dolls.” The Los Angeles Review. March 2017.   
• “But There is Also Rosa.” Passages North, Northern Michigan University. January 2017.  

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Courses (Current Academic Year)

• Creative Writing
• American Literature
• World/Multicultural Literature
• Literature and Experience
• American Immigrant Literature
• American Minority Literature

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Research Projects

Dr. McCauley is a multi-genre writer and considers hybrid forms, short stories, historical fiction, personal narratives and lyric essays a special creative home. Her creative and critical projects currently center on Black women during the American Reconstruction Era, Black Puerto Rican transnational exchanges, and the Afro-Puerto Rican experience in the United States.

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Awards and Accomplishments

• National Endowment for the Arts fellowship
• Independent Publisher Book Awards
• Academy of American Poets
• Pushcart Prize Special Mention

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