Margaret Thickstun wrote Fictions of the Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women and Milton's Paradise Lost: Moral Education. She has also written about Milton, Bunyan, Swift, and Puritan women's spirituality, among other topics. Thickstun's teaching interests include religious literature and questions relating to history of the book and literary reception, specifically the transition from manuscript to print culture, books as physical objects, the place of women writers, the making and role of anthologies, and the making of a canon. She received her doctorate from Cornell University.