In the midst of things

Short writing is hard. It stretches writers to find only the essential and to think about what assumptions they can count on their reader to make. We spent a whole day last week hearing from a range of writers who work in short forms, from poets, to curators, to #twitterstorians, and 'flash historical fiction' writers …

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Speculative Biography (Reading List)

This short reading list includes work where historians and biographers have reflected on the possibility and desirability of using fictional techniques to write real lives. It should be noted that not all of the following use the term 'speculative biography' or 'biofiction'. If you have any other suggestions for work you think belongs on a …

First-Person Empathy

First-Person Empathy   In my last blog, I considered empathy and writing, stating that for my work on this project I want to empathise with views and opinions I don’t understand (or necessarily agree with) through my playwriting. This blog explores this idea a little further, and make suggestions for the creative ways in which I …

Fact… Possibility… Imagination

Roy Clark says there are two rules of non-fiction. ‘Do not add. Do not deceive.’ ‘Never put something into your story that hasn’t checked out.’[1]   I struggle with this in crimes of extravagant fear Like the attack on Jacques M, by his neighbour Joseph A, who thought him a witch I think. Let’s begin …

Footnotes in history

I think the world is all fucked up in many ways (see footnotes) So writes Bernadette Mayer, in her poem Ode on Periods. The footnotes are non-existent: there are none at the bottom of the poem. She continues, I've nothing at all to say but to exercise / my freedom to speak about everything. I …

Wicked Empathy

Empathy - noun. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another I’ve been trying to empathise more.  I want my writing to be empathetic.  Some may consider creative writing to be an opportunity to convey their world-view to a wider audience, to instruct or enlighten people in certain ideas. When working creatively with history, …

Grounded Speculation, or Divining the Past

Tarot cards are well-known tools for divining the future: why not use them for the past? The idea might sound strange, but I want to suggest a rigourous and legitimate method of using the Tarot to answer questions about the past. Whenever historians talk about creative methods, imagination is one of the first that comes …