Maggie Messitt is an immersion and narrative journalist focused on middle America and southern Africa. She lived in rural South Africa from 2003-2011, during which time she was a freelance writer, newspaper editor, and founding director of a writing school for rural women. Maggie's essays and reportage have been published in magazines and heard on the radio around the globe. THE RAINY SEASON: THREE LIVES IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA is her first book.