Stephanie Powell Watts teaches courses on the legacies of exclusion and
alienation in the works of contemporary women and minority writers.
The main characters in these works are typically border
figures--persons who both are and are not of an accepted class or
group. These characters are usually the locus of disruption for the
society, the very definition of deviance, monstrosity and magic for the
dominant group. Stephanie teaches a variety of classes concerned with
these ideas. Stephanie is primarily a writer and teacher of both
fiction and creative nonfiction. Her classes are designed to introduce
students to the writing life by exposing them to many of the leading
practitioners of writing today. Students are encouraged to practice
the art of writing by sharing their own creative works in classroom
workshops. Stephanie has completed a novel and is at work on a
memoir. Stephanie received her PhD from the University of Missouri,
where she was a Gus T. Ridgel fellow. Her nonfiction has been
recognized by the Atlantic Monthly. Her short fiction and poetry is
published in journals such as the African American Review and Obsidian III.