WNBA Wednesday: Historical Fiction Panel

The NYC chapter of the Women’s National Book Association will be hosting a panel this month entitled, “Historical Fiction: An Enduring Genre in a Changing Landscape.”

Thursday, April 26, 6:00PM – 8:00PM
Wix Lounge, 10 West 18th Street, 2nd Floor, NYC

Free admission for WNBA Members
Non-members ~ $10.00

Register Here!

The Red Tent, Cold Mountain, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and other successful historical novels set off a trend that’s apparent to anyone who follows current fiction. Historical novels are hot! And read by people who never thought they were interested in history. We’ll explore what historical fiction means to today’s readers and publishers, and we’ll examine what it’s like to be a player in this market – agent, author, editor, reviewer, or bookseller – what’s happening now, and what’s likely to happen down the road.

Panelists

Carole DeSanti‘s The Unruly Passions of Eugénie R. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 2012) is already receiving great reviews. Carole is also Vice President, Editor at Large at Viking Penguin, where she is well known as a champion of outstanding, original voices in women’s literature, including those of Dorothy Allison, Tracy Chevalier, and Melissa Banks. (Photo © Sigrid Estrada.)

Kathryn Harrison is the author of thirteen books, including the bestselling memoirs The Kiss and The Road to Santiago. Her historical novels include The Binding Chair, Poison, and The Seal Wife. Her latest novel, Enchantments (Random House, 2012) takes place during the final days of Russia’s Romanov Empire. She is also a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review. (Photo ©J.Ravid.)

Barbara Hoffert is a fiction editor at Library Journal and the author of LJ’s long-running weekly Prepubs Alert column. She is a past-president of the National Book Critics Circle, for which she now serves as Awards Chair. In 2006, she won ALA-RUSA’s Louis Shores-Greenwood Publishing Group Award for excellence in reviewing. (Photo courtesy of Library Journal.)

Daniel Lazar is a senior agent at the Writers House literary agency. He represents a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books, but he especially loves historical fiction of all kinds. Some recent and forthcoming books include NYT bestseller Juliet by Anne Fortier, The Bells by Richard Harvell, Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran, and The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O’Melveney.

Heather Lazare joined Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, as a senior editor in 2011 after six years working at the Crown Publishing Group. Prior to that, she was with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Heather acquires historical fiction, upmarket women’s fiction (book club books), narrative nonfiction, humor, pop culture and memoir. (Photo courtesy of HNS Conference 2012.)

Moderated by Rosalind Reisner, WNBA-NYC member and author of Read On…Life Stories, a readers’ guide to the memoir genre, and the award-winning reference book Jewish American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests. Rosalind is a former librarian; she speaks about books and reading and blogs at www.areadersplace.net.

This event is being held at Wix Lounge, a free co-working and event space sponsored by Wix.com. Launched in 2008, Wix.com is a free online platform that allows users to create their own Flash website, Apple-compatible mobile sites, and customized Facebook pages.