Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Wednesday Web Browser

Historical fictionists: Take note of John Vanderslice's thoughts on "knowingly parting from fact," prompted by his attendance at an AWP panel in Denver.
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A mini-craft lecture on writing with empathy, courtesy of Tayari Jones.
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I'm not doing a very good job keeping up with all of the Poem-A-Day prompts on Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides blog, but I did catch (and love) this one. Time to get back to a certain poem-in-progress!

4 comments:

Barbara Krasner said...

Hooray for a panel about historical fiction! I've heard so much about how it's hard to sell it, but think about award-winning movies and, at least, Newbery winners. Historical fiction has an integral role in our literature but often receives a bum rap. I'm glad that AWP had a panel. Now, if only we could move it earlier in the agenda.

John Vanderslice said...

Thanks for the plug, Erika. I felt pretty impassioned about the issue, as you can tell from the post. Too often the fiction in historical fiction goes underrecognized.

Erika D. said...

Barbara, there have been other historical fiction panels in the past--I know I've attended some--and I hope there will be more in the future. John, I did appreciate the post. Your comment also reminds me of something a visiting writer, Allen Ballard, said once when I was back in Mass.: "It [historical fiction] has to fly as fiction first." Thank you both for your comments.

jessica handler said...

Thanks for the historical fiction post and link. Exactly what I needed to read tonight.