Session 97: Would You Write More, or What? The Quest to Publish Historically-Based Creative Writing in the Contemporary Literary Marketplace (A Roundtable)
· Organizer: Curtis VanDonkelaar, Michigan State Univ.
· Presider: Curtis VanDonkelaar
A roundtable discussion with Grace Tiffany, Western Michigan Univ.; Amanda Sikarskie, Univ. of Michigan–Dearborn; Merrie Haskell, Library, Univ. of Michigan Library; and Edward L. Risden, St. Norbert College.
Genre fiction has embraced historically-based writing for quite some time, but there now seems to be more openness in “literary” venues as well. The Presider (VanDonkelaar) considers this possibly related to pop culture phenomena like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Introduces the panel:
Grace Tiffany - author of six novels set in the middle ages or English Renaissance Talks about how you integrate your creative work with professional scholarship. Interest grew from reading Renaissance literature (Shakespeare, etc.). Led to interest in creating her own stories. Can explore ideas that arose in the context of scholarship from a different angle. Argues it’s not just pop culture or genre fiction, but people like Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall).
Amanda Sikarskie - The “odd person out” as an art historian who is now in the middle of writing a novel. [The link is to her non-fiction publications.] Tells a story about the passage in a historic source that inspired her fictionalization of the event concerning a family of silk weavers. She recommends novel writing as a distraction from looming academic deadlines.
Merrie Haskell - Now she claims the “odd person out” title as a non-academic, although she’s working on a degree to become an academic librarian (currently a para-professional). So for her the writing focus drives her other professional interests, rather than the other way around. Many of her books are aimed at the young adult market.
Edward L. Risden, writing fiction as Edward S. Louis - He’s the first presenter who notes negative reactions from his academic colleagues for his fiction writing. This moves into a discussion among the presenters about this point. Tiffany notes that she has consistently written both fiction and academic work at the same time and her institution supports “creative” work as well as research (and she already has tenure).
General discussion about the mechanics of self-publishing, comparing non-fiction and fiction aspects. (This is from Sikarskie who has self-published non-fiction as well as having her research published by others.) Comparison of the economics of publishing for academic presses versus other models.
Question: Do you bring aspects of your fiction writing into your teaching process? Risden: Yes, in terms of process, projects, ideas. Presenting historic material in narrative/experiential format. Tiffany: Yes, especially when interacting with Shakespeare. Have students create their own new interpretations, dialogues, to demonstrate understanding of the characters and material. Having students fill in the “gap” in Beowulf, extrapolating from the existing material creatively.
The presider is now repeating the canard that “major publishers” don’t understand the internet and are behind the curve on using new technologies. Tiffany is challenging this, especially the theory that one needs to have separate literary identities for different types of work. Haskell offers the middle ground that pen names are useful for separate branding, and this works for academic/non-academic divides as well. Further discussion of the dynamics and practicalities of pen names. Tiffany notes that her case is peculiar since her fiction is essentially unknown so there isn’t a set of readers moving from that to her academic work and bouncing off.
Sikarskie provides practical and useful information about why self-publishing is not as great an idea for fiction as many people think. She also notes that she was advised to leave her self-published non-fiction work off her academic resume. Conversation moves on to the problem of trying to make a living as an author. [Very little of the specifics of this part of the conversation will be new to any of my usual audience.]