I recently attended a panel discussion hosted by the Winnipeg Jewish Heritage Centre featuring three authors of historical fiction for young people, Harriet Zaidman, Carol Matas, and Eva Wiseman.
Mavis Reimer and I are third and fourth from the right in this photo of the staff of our Steinbach high school newspaper
The panel was chaired by a former high school classmate of mine Dr. Mavis Reimer the founding director of the Centre for Research in Young People's Texts and Cultures at the University of Winnipeg.
I had another personal reason for attending the event since author Harriet Zaidman is a friend who hosted the launch of my first novel Lost on the Prairie.
All three of the authors on the panel had written numerous award-winning books of historical fiction for young people.
The panel members from left to right Dr. Mavis Reimer, Harriet Zaidman, Eva Wiseman and Carol Matas
Since I write historical fiction too I was particularly intrigued by Dr. Reimer's comment that the genre designation historical fiction is really an oxymoron. How can a book be historical or factual and......... at the same time be fiction? Dr. Reimer wanted each panelist to talk about whether fact or fiction was more important in their writing.
Eva Wiseman and her book Another Me- photo from the Penguin Random House website
Eva Wiseman said that authors of historical fiction do not rewrite history. They do their historical research first and then meld their characters into the historical events.
She talked about all the research she does to make sure the way her characters dress and speak is consistent with the time period in which a novel she is writing takes place.
She wants to write a good story and tell it well but she also wants the historical aspect of her books to have integrity.
Carol Matas with her latest novel- photo by Per Brask from the Writers Union of Canada website
Carol Matas also stressed the importance of historical research. She continually asks herself whether the things that happen in her books COULD have happened in that historical time and place.
Carol talked about how she sometimes uses personal memoirs from a certain time period in her work but needs to be careful because memoirs aren't always factually accurate and provide only one person's view of events.
She also gave examples of how editors can pressure writers into making inaccurate changes in their manuscript that may not be exactly true to history but the editor believes would improve the story.
A question Carol asks herself while writing historical fiction is how do the facts influence you and how might your writing influence the facts?
Harriet Zaidman with her latest novel - Photo by Cody Sellar from an article in the Free Press Community Review Harriet Zaidman said authors of historical fiction have a responsibility to represent history accurately in their books. Harriet does a great deal more research for her novels than she can ever use in her manscript.
Some of Harriet's background research for her book City on Strike about the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike came from hours of taped conversations with her own parents and their first hand experiences growing up in Winnipeg's North End where many scenes in her novel takes place.
For her book Second Chances about the polio epidemic Harriet interviewed numerous polio survivors and says that everything she included in the book happened to one of them.
Harriet feels more confident taking liberties with the way she depicts real people in her novels if there isn't a great deal that has been historically documented about that person.
Discerning how to be historically accurate while writing an exciting and engaging story is a challenge for authors of historical fiction and it was interesting to hear how three well-known Winnipeg authors deal with that.
It seemed to me from their discussion that a delicate balance of fact and fiction are very important in a good book.
The panel discussion at the Jewish Heritage Centre was well attended and I really enjoyed all of the discussion about the various aspects of writing historical fiction for young people.
Other posts.............
The 60s- Ten Things You Might Not Know
Learning How To Write Historical Fiction
What Four Things Does A Manitoba Writer Need to Survive the Winter?
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