A Master Class with Novelist Nishant Batsha

Historical fiction has become the dominant mode of American literary production, or so argues the scholar and critic Alexander Manshel. And yet the idea of “historical fiction” as a craft still suffers from the hangover of Georg Lukacs’ 1937 criticism that the genre is merely a form of “costume drama.” How should writers approach creating historical fiction? Does realism dictate that writers must remain faithful to historical events as they were? Or can they depart from the timeline without entering a fantastical or magical-realist mode? This seminar will discuss the nature and form of historical fiction, informed by texts from Hilary Mantel, Valeria Luiselli, Toni Morrison, and others.

Nishant Batsha is the author of the novels A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart and Mother Ocean Father Nation, named a finalist for a 2023 Lambda Literary Award and listed as one the best books of 2022 by NPR. He lives in Buffalo, New York, with his family.