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Let’s take it back a step. Or two. Or two hundred. Why is historical fiction so important? What does it suggest about our future? Enjoy a genre chat with Sarah Drummond, David Dyer and Kate Forsyth.
Panel
2016 Historical Fiction
Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel aged seven, and has now sold more than a million copies around the world. Her novels include The Beast’s Garden, The Wild Girl, and Bitter Greens, which won the 2015 American Library Association Award for Best Historical Fiction. Kate’s children’s novels include The Impossible Quest, The Puzzle Ring and The Gypsy Crown. Named one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists, Kate has a doctorate in fairy tale studies and is an accredited master storyteller.
Sarah Drummond
Sarah Drummond is the author of Salt Story: Of Sea-dogs and Fisherwomen, a memoir and social history of commercial estuarine fishers. She has had essays and short fiction published in various journals and anthologies, including Purple Prose, The Best Australian Essays 2010 and Overland. Sarah brings her own knowledge of fishing the waters of the Great Southern Ocean, and her love of the region’s rich history, to her fiction writing. The Sound, based on historical fact, is her first novel.
David Dyer
David Dyer grew up in Shellharbour, NSW, and after leaving school attended the Australian Maritime College in Tasmania. He travelled the world on merchant ships before returning to NSW to study arts and law at Sydney University. He was a solicitor for several years in Sydney and London, and then retrained as an English teacher. He was awarded a Doctorate in Creative Arts by the University of Technology, Sydney in 2014. The Midnight Watch is his first novel.