The Conference
Join us for the HFRN Annual Conference 2025 in Manchester, UK
News
Call for papers, call for submissions, workshop announcements – find out the latest
About us
Learn more about our mission and how to join us
The Book Series
Contribute to Global Historical Fictions (Brill)
Online Workshops
We run yearly international, interdisciplinary one-day workshops in December
The Board
Meet the member of our board and find out how to get involved
Since its inceptional conference at the University of East Anglia in 2016, the Historical Fictions Research Network has been encouraging and generating conversation on line, in print and on a range of platforms about how history is constructed across a range of media and platforms. Welcoming both academics and practitioners, the HFRN aims to create a place for the discussion of all aspects of the construction of the historical narrative through its journal, annual conferences, and further activities. Previous keynotes have explored the experiences of excavations at Treblinka; the use of DNA to reconstruct historical narratives; explorations of memorial practices at battle fields; cookery as a means to explore the past; new insights resulting from a computer based re-construction of the battle of Trafalgar; and a discussion of new approaches at the Petrie Museum.
“In the Old Testament, God asked the prophet Ezekiel, ‘Can these bones live?’ He answered yes: and so do I. The task of historical fiction is to take the past out of the archive and relocate it in a body.”
Hilary Mantel (2917): “Can These Bones Live? Treading the Line Between History and Alternative Facts”
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