Imagining The Past

Author and inaugural winner of the ARA Historical Fiction Prize 2020 Mirandi Riwoe discusses writing, research, gender-bending, sea-cucumbers and Stone Sky Gold Mountain with Greg Johnston. 

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our  fourteenth episode explores the allure of France has often inspired historical novelists to conjure the romance and tumult of its history. Kate Forsyth’s latest novel, The Blue Rose, transports the reader to the perils of the French Revolution and the exotic...

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our episode thirteenth explores the challenges faced in researching pre-history when there are no written records? How do you approach interpreting Middle Age chronicles? Or choose between a plethora of conflicting primary sources when delving into modern history...

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our twelfth episode explores History and Mystery: weaving a web of truth and lies in detective fiction.  Writing historical crime fiction is like a treasure hunt for authors who dig up nuggets from the past to recreate old crimes and mysteries, both real and imag...

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our eleventh episode explores the silver screen: scriptwriting and adaptations.  More and more historical novels are being adapted for screen with lavish production values and high profile stars. What is the secret to writing scripts compared to books? How do scr...

Imagining the Past’s new season features live recorded sessions from the 2019 HNSA conference brought to you by our host, Greg Johnston. Our tenth episode explores Parramatta, the second penal settlement established in Australia. When Thomas Keneally and Meg Keneally decided to set their Monsarratt detective series there, Meg sought the assistance of local historian, Gay Hendrikson, to dig into th...

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 thre...

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...

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 C...

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...

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 ha...

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 techniq...

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?...

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 bene...

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, w...

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.

Our interview with best-selling author Nicole Alexander on writing about rural Australia: the challenges, the research, the histories, and the people.

In this episode, we speak with Catherine Jinks, award-winning author of this year's Shepherd , and the Theophilus Grey and Pagan series - on voice, character, and writing for readers of all ages.

Kelly Gardiner talks to David Whish-Wilson, author of The Coves , about the wild years of the American gold rush, fascinating people from the past, and the allure of crime writing.

Pamela Hart discusses her research processes and favourite resources, what makes a great idea for a book, and offers advice to emerging writers of historical fiction.

Our first podcast interview for 2019 features one of Australia's favourite authors, and our guest of honour at this year's conference –  the incomparable Jackie French .

Kelly Gardiner and Catherine Padmore chat about the craft of writing Historical Bio-Fiction.

Kelly talks to Ngahuia and Deborah about the challenges of reinterpreting C19 narratives of first contact and colonisation #HNSA #NgahuiateAwekotuku #DeborahChallinor #historicalfiction

Kelly Gardiner chats with Lucy Treloar about specific issues encountered writing Australian colonial fiction #historialfiction #writing #history #fiction #LucyTreloar

Kelly Gardiner chats with Kate Forsyth about her passion for history, fairy tales and writing stories that combine both. #writing #history #historicalfiction #fiction #kateforsyth