HISTORICAL FICTION
and The Search for Truth

The Twenty-Seventh Annual Key West Literary Seminar

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

-William Faulkner



For centuries, writers of fiction have employed historical events, people, and settings to create dazzling literary landscapes--narratives fraught with possibility, improbability, and inventive delight. Join us in 2009 as we bring together world-renowned writers of historical fiction and noted historians to talk about their journeys into the past (real and imagined) and to explore and share their many ways of knowing and understanding what has come before.


Session 1: January 8 – 11, 2009

with
Geraldine Brooks, Peter Ho Davies, Eric Foner, Allan Gurganus, Ursula Hegi, Jane Kamensky, Jill Lepore, David Levering Lewis, Megan Marshall, Peter Matthiessen, Ivy Meeropol, Michael Meeropol, Sena Jeter Naslund, Patricia O’Toole, Barry Unsworth, Gore Vidal, Hilma Wolitzer, and John Wray

John Hersey Memorial Address: Geraldine Brooks
John Malcolm Brinnin Memorial Address: Gala Evening with Gore Vidal

Session 1 is now sold out. Contact us to be added to a waiting list.



Workshop Program: January 12 – 15, 2009

with
Alan Cheuse, Billy Collins, Edward Hower, Alison Lurie, Mary Morris, Bich Minh Nguyen, Patricia O'Toole, Porter Shreve, Dara Wier, and Hilma Wolitzer



Session 2: January 15 – 18, 2009

with
Chantel Acevedo, Calvin Baker, Russell Banks, Andrea Barrett, Madison Smartt Bell, Alan Cheuse, Elizabeth Gaffney, Francisco Goldman, Samantha Hunt, William Kennedy, Rachel Kushner, Thomas Mallon, Valerie Martin, Anchee Min, Mary Morris, David Nasaw, Joyce Carol Oates, Marilynne Robinson, John Burnham Schwartz, and Barry Unsworth

John Hersey Memorial Address: Barry Unsworth
John Malcolm Brinnin Memorial Event: A performance by Anchee Min and Lauryann Jiang; followed by a conversation with Russell Banks, William Kennedy, and Joyce Carol Oates.



Join our community of passionate readers, as we explore such intriguing questions as


  • How do writers use imagination to understand the past, and how does that process help us see what is true in the present?
  • What does it mean to re-imagine or re-invent history?
  • Why would a writer bother? How do writers do it?
  • How do writers of historical fiction transform the past into a story
  • which is alive in the present?
  • How do writers of historical fiction achieve authenticity? In voice? In character? In setting?
  • What is the nature of subjective truth? Can we ever really know what happened in the past?
  • What makes imaginative insight sometimes more compelling than literal truth? How do we know what is true?
  • What do historians think about historical fiction?
  • How do historians make the past come alive? How do they create literature?
  • And what is so compelling about the past that we as readers are so enthralled?


About our 2009 Seminar:

Each Seminar session will have its own panelists and topics of discussion, though one or two panelists may appear at both sessions. It is possible to register for either or both sessions. If there is room, it is possible to switch sessions after registration. The Seminar is independent of the Workshop program, though we do encourage Workshop participants to attend one of the Seminar sessions. Click here for Workshop details.

Each Seminar session begins with a keynote address on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Each session formally ends on Sunday around noon, followed by a conch chowder luncheon. From 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, we present a free session which is open to the general public. This session is not included in your registration package; seating is first-come, first-served. Click here to see the full schedule.

The cost of the Seminar is $495. A $100 deposit holds your place.

The Seminar is by its nature small and intimate. Advance registration is strongly encouraged.