Biographical Sketch

Vanelis Rivera is a Latine, Louisiana-based writer of nonfiction born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and raised in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands. She received her MFA from the University of New Orleans and her MA from the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM). Currently, she is an assistant professor at ULM and a contributing writer for BayouLife Magazine where she focuses extensively on the culture and lifestyle of Northeast Louisiana. She has also been published in She Shreds Magazine and Farm Star Living. Her essay "How to Love a Prophet" received an honorable mention for the 2023 Patty Friedmann Writing Competition and will be published in Issue 10 of the Peauxdunque Review. Having recently completed her memoir Girlsaint, which maps her girlhood on the island of St. Croix, she is beginning her career as a memoirist and essayist.

Research Interests

• Caribbean Studies
• Latinx/Indigenous/Comparative Americas
• Critical Theory/Cultural Studies
• Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Memoir and Nonfiction
• Postcolonial/Decolonial Studies
• Film, Media, and Visual Studies
• Literature and Music
• Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Studies

Courses Taught

BULG 5000BUSINESS LANGUAGE PROFESSIONAL, 1 course(s)

ENGL 1001COMPOSITION I, 28 course(s)

ENGL 1002COMPOSITION II, 51 course(s)

ENGL 1010HONORS COMPOSITION, 8 course(s)

ENGL 2001ENGLISH LITERATURE I, 7 course(s)

ENGL 2002ENGLISH LITERATURE II, 2 course(s)

ENGL 2003WORLD LITERATURE I, 12 course(s)

ENGL 2004WORLD LITERATURE II, 2 course(s)

ENGL 2007HONORS ENGLISH, 4 course(s)

ENGL 2050EXPLORATIONS IN LITERATURE, 2 course(s)

ENGL 2099INTRO TO ENGLISH STUDIES, 1 course(s)

ENGL 3015CREATIVE WRITING, 1 course(s)

ENGL 3016CREATIVE NONFICTION, 1 course(s)

ENGL 4026MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE, 1 course(s)

ENGL 5030POETRY WRITING SEMINAR, 1 course(s)

ENGL 5031FICTION WRITING SEMINAR, 1 course(s)

ENGL 5064MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE, 2 course(s)

ESLG 1004ADV READING & VOCABULARY, 2 course(s)

ESLG 1006ADV ORAL LANGUAGE DEVOLPMENT, 6 course(s)