Michael Wettengel had to fight his boredom somehow as he was sandwiched between Illinoisan rural oblivion and tractless Chicagoan sprawl. So, he turned to fantasy fiction. After studying English writing and history at Illinois Wesleyan, and after spending a year out in the wider world, he has come to learn a couple of things about the arcane art of fiction writing.
Now, as a Creative Writing and Environment MFA student and recent graduate from Iowa State’s MA English Literature program, he is searching for more to learn about his craft. He plans to broaden his horizon from fantasy fiction to historical fiction and avant-garde deconstructions of form and character.
His environmental research focuses on how history and culture evolve the identity of a place. He specializes in crafting living, breathing history in his fictional places. Michael comes from a homogeneous, not-so-storied, pocket of Illinois, so the act of writing is also an act of discovery to him. He approaches his writing with the mindsets of both a creator and an explorer.