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Menna van Praag

Royal Literary Fund Fellow

Faculty:
Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
School:
Cambridge School of Creative Industries
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Creative writing
Research Supervision:
Yes
Courses taught:

Menna van Praag is the author of six magical realism novels and a fantasy trilogy: The Sisters Grimm. Her publications have been translated into 26 languages. She specialises in speculative fiction but supports students writing novels in all genres.

[email protected]

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Background

After studying Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford, Menna returned home to Cambridge to study Creative Writing and work as a freelance journalist and script reader for BBC Films and TV.

fter publishing her first novel in 2011, Menna began teaching creative writing at institutions including Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education and the Cambridge School of Drama & the Creative Arts, before joining ARU as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow in 2021, where she also teaches on the MA Creative Writing's 'The History of the Novel' module.

Research interests

  • Nineteenth-century marriage and feminism
  • The Pre-Raphaelites
  • Psychological fiction
  • Speculative fiction
  • Short fiction and flash fiction
  • Magical realism
  • The history of the novel

Areas of research supervision

  • Creative Writing

Teaching

Menna currently teaches on the following modules:

  • History of the Novel

Selected recent publications

Night of Demons & Saints (London, Transworld & New York: Harper Voyager 2022)

The Sisters Grimm (London, Transworld & New York: Harper Voyager 2020)

The Patron Saint of Lost Souls (London, Allison & Busby, 2019)

The Lost Art of Letter Writing (London, Allison & Busby, 2017)

The Witches of Cambridge (London, Allison & Busby & New York: Penguin Random House 2016)

The Dress Shop of Dreams (London, Allison & Busby & New York: Penguin Random House 2015)

The House at the End of Hope Street (London, Allison & Busby & New York: Penguin, 2013)

Men, Money & Chocolate (London & New York: Hay House, 2011)