Thank you to author Wendy J. Dunn for letting me know about this event that will be of interest to our Australian followers. The 2017 Historical Novel Society Australasia Conference is taking place in Melbourne from 8-10 September. Here is information on it from the HNSA:
“This celebration of the historical fiction genre will showcase over 60 speakers discussing inspiration, writing craft, research, publishing pathways and personal histories. Among the many acclaimed historical novelists participating are Kerry Greenwood, Kate Forsyth, Deborah Challinor, Lucy Treloar, Sophie Masson, Sulari Gentill, Robert Gott, Arnold Zable, Gary Crew, Melissa Ashley, Kate Mildenhall, Juliet Marillier, Anne Gracie, Pamela Hart, Kelly Gardiner and Libby Hathorn.
In addition to the two stream weekend programme, there will be ten smaller super sessions on Historical Mysteries, Historical Romance, Children and Young Adult Fiction, Pitching to Publishers, Social Media, Scrivener, Self-Publishing, Family History, Trove, and the Business of Writing. Dr Gillian Polack is offering two research masterclasses. You won’t want to miss our interactive sessions on armour and historical costumes either!
Manuscript assessments will be conducted by industry experts, Kylie Mason and Irina Dunn. And there are two calls for papers in our extended academic programme.
Our First Pages Pitch Contest offers an opportunity for submissions to be read aloud to a panel of publishers. And we are delighted to announce the introduction of our inaugural HNSA Short Story Contest with a $500 prize!”
You can view or download the programme at http://hnsa.org.au/conference/programme/. It really does look fantastic.
If you want to catch Wendy – author of Falling Pomegranate Seeds, The Light in the Labyrinth and Dear Heart, How Like You This – then she’s part of the panel discussing “How to transmute research into compelling historical fiction” on Saturday 9th September at 11.15am and she is also chairing the Academic Panel “‘The lie of history’: How the mirror of the present shapes the past for its own purposes – Part 1” on Sunday 10th September.
Early bird tickets will be available until 30 June 2017 or until Early Bird tickets are sold out and you can buy tickets at http://hnsa.org.au/conference/buy-tickets/
