Imagining The Past

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our ninth episode explores the survival of the fittest: challenging interior and exterior landscapes.  A stark Australian landscape is both menacing and beautiful in Rachel Leary’s Bridget Crack with a protagonist who must overcome physical and psychological threats. David Whish-Wilson’s  The Coves explores the brutality of Australian renegades in the unlawful streets of 19th century San Francisco while Stephanie Parkyn’s Into the World forces her heroine to face ocean hazards while striving to protect a dangerous personal secret. Lisa Chaplin explores these authors’ sources of inspiration, and what it takes to create characters who battle internal fears in a fight for survival against nature and man.

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our eighth episode explores Regency madness and inspiration.  The Regency period lasted a mere nine years while Prince Regent George ruled as his temporarily mad father’s proxy. The glamour and charm of the era has lasted far longer with a plethora of novels set in in those times first made popular by Georgette Heyer in the 1920s. Alison Goodman, Anne Gracie and Anna Campbell chat with Elizabeth Jane Corbett about their inspirational sources, their own passion for the period, and how they have played with the tradition of Regency romance.

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our seventh episode is a personal history session: In conversation with Nicole Alexander and Ella Carey.  Nicole Alexander writes sweeping epics evoking the grandeur of Australian landscapes, the hardships of rural life, and the turmoil of historic events. Ella Carey introduces her readers to the quiet interconnections through parallel narratives of women living in modern and past times. Both authors draw on the personal to weave tales into a wider historical context. Irina Dunn asks these authors about their writing journeys, the inspiration for their books, and why they draw upon family legend.  

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our sixth episode talks of Bette and Joan.  Elizabeth I and Joan of Arc have been the subjects of countless books, engendering myth, obsession, and various interpretations of their lives. Linda Funnell asks Jane Caro and Ali Alizadeh why they chose to investigate the stories of these famous women, and how they bring fresh perspective to their histories.  

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our fifth episode explores The Feminine Mystique.  Ensuring a female protagonist’s thoughts and actions remain true to the norms of by-gone eras and cultures causes headaches for writers – and readers. How does an author maintain immediacy if limited to second hand observations of male dominated history? Should women of the past be depicted with more power and influence than would have been afforded to them? And how do you treat a young heroine in an age where girls were restricted, and children expected to be ‘seen and not heard’? Sophie Masson  examined how to portray plausible female protagonists with Juliet Marillier, Elizabeth Jane Corbett and Kirsty Murray.

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our fourth episode explores parallel narratives.  Interlocking stories crossing different eras have been used to great effect in historical novels. What plot devices do authors use to trace the connections between their characters? Do writers use the same techniques as in historical mysteries? And how do they balance the competing voices that must be heard in order for revelation to be achieved? Tea Cooper, Emily Madden, Carla Caruso discuss with Diane Murray the challenges of intertwining lives around historical eras.

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our third episode explores point of view.  When starting to write, deciding which type of point of view will be exploited is a significant decision with far-reaching consequences. Who knows what? Who sees what? How much do you want the reader to know?  And when? Once the decisions are made, they can be both liberating and confining. Greg Johnston explores ‘the slings and arrows’ of point of view with Robyn Cadwallader, Julian Leatherdale and Belinda Castles.

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our second episode explores Creative writing postgraduate degrees which have become increasingly popular in the last decade. Associate Professor Sara Knox (WSU) talks to Dr Jesse Blackadder, Dr Rachel le Rossignol and PhD candidate, Joshua Mostafa, about the benefits of combining the process of completing a novel with a deeper examination of the genre’s purpose, themes, and interpretation of research. Full details of the speakers are available in our News & Interviews tab on our website.

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our first episode explores Dispossession and Betrayal: Recovering the Erased history of First Nations. Indigenous writers, Madison Shakespeare and Lisa Chaplin, discuss with Maori writer and academic, Dr Paula Morris, why Aboriginal history has been suppressed, what is needed to remedy the omission, and how historical fiction can play a role in ensuring past injustices and cruelties aren’t forgotten or repeated. Full details of the speakers are available in our News & Interviews tab on our website.

Our final episode for this season features a queen of historical fantasy, Alison Goodman, author of seven novels including her award-winning Lady Helen Regency supernatural trilogy. Alison talks with host Kelly Gardiner about combining fantasy elements in a meticulously researched historical story.