History Shapes Us, Imagination Frees Us : Santa Barbara Literary Festival

In this panel, historical fiction authors Denny S. Bryce, Jane Healy, and Timothy Schaffert will be in conversation with moderator Mandy Jackson-Beverly about how history shapes us and the tools historical fiction authors

use to create their work. At what point does research yield to imagination, when does the writer know it's time to let go of facts and research, and enter the world of imagination.

Panelists

Jane Healey is the author of The Saturday Evening Girls Club, Goodnight from Paris, The Secret Stealers, The Women of Arlington Hall and The Beantown Girls, a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. She has given talks about the history behind her novels to hundreds of organizations around the country, including through the American Red Cross and the Jewish Book Council Network.
Denny S. Bryce is a best-selling, award-winning author of historical fiction. A former dancer and public relations professional, Denny is an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and a freelance writer whose work has appeared in USA Today and Harper's Bazaar.
Timothy Schaffert is the author of The Perfume Thief, The Swan Gondola, The Coffins of Little Hope, Devils in the Sugar Shop, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, and The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters. He is the Adele Hall Chair of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and coeditor of Zero Street, a literary fiction series of the University of Nebraska Press.

Moderator

Born in rural Australia and shaped by creative life in London and Los Angeles, Mandy Jackson-Beverly has built a career at the intersection of fashion, music, and literature. A former stylist for icons including David Bowie and Madonna, she is now the creator of The Bookshop Podcast and co-founder of the Lunch With An Author series. A novelist and essayist, she explores magic, darkness, and the human spirit. She lives and writes in Ojai, California.

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