{"id":233,"date":"2017-03-13T12:34:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T12:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/?p=233"},"modified":"2017-03-03T12:36:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T12:36:31","slug":"fantasy-worlds-with-frances-hardinge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/fantasy-worlds-with-frances-hardinge\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy Worlds with Frances Hardinge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Newcastle University\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Unit<\/a> and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children\u2019s Books<\/a> were delighted to welcome Frances Hardinge<\/a>, award-winning author of The Lie Tree<\/a>, to Newcastle for a very special event.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In conversation with the Children\u2019s Literature Unit\u2019s Aishwarya Subramanian, Frances talked about the borders between fantasy and reality and the inspiration for her writing. I asked Aishwarya about the experience of hosting the event\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Frances
Frances Hardinge signs books after her talk. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hi Aishwarya! Thank you so much for chairing <\/strong>Fantasy Worlds with Frances Hardinge<\/strong><\/a>. How was it for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was terrifying! I’ve interviewed people before, but in print, where you have the luxury of editing (and of not being in front of a big audience). Once we’d got past the first couple of questions, though, it was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

How did the opportunity to take part in this event come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’d discussed Frances’ last two books with other people in the Children’s Literature Unit as part of our Carnegie shadowing group in 2015 and 2016, and so everyone knew I had an interest in her work. Plus, my research is on British children’s fantasy, so I think they were hoping I’d have lots of things to ask.<\/p>\n

What do you like about Frances\u2019 writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her books are odd and twisty and full of joy in language. Those are things I really responded to as a child (and still do). They’re also full of important things like moral complexity and revolutions and angry little girls. As an adult, I really appreciate that her books are pitched at a more middle-grade than young adult audience (insofar as those categories mean anything), because middle-grade fiction just doesn’t get enough love and it’s really good to see someone doing it so well and being celebrated for it.<\/p>\n

\"Frances
Frances Hardinge reads from her novel, The Lie Tree, with Aishwarya Subramanian. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did you prepare for the event?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I speed-read (or tried to) my way through all her work again and wrote down many questions, most of which I ended up not asking because they were too specific. I didn’t quite manage to read every book\u2014it was probably obvious to the audience which of the books were most fresh in my mind!<\/p>\n

Were you surprised by any of the answers Frances gave to the questions you asked?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not really\u2014in most cases I was asking things I genuinely just wanted to know, so had no prior expectations of what she would answer. I did have a broad outline of what I wanted to discuss during the conversation, and had to reshuffle my questions a bit as things went on.<\/p>\n

Tell me about your PhD research. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I study the presentation of physical space in British children’s fantasy over the mid-twentieth century, and connect that with the spatial politics of the end of the British Empire\u2014essentially reading British fantasy as a form of postcolonial literature. I promise it’s a lot more fun than it sounds (and I get to write about some of my favourite books!).<\/p>\n

\"Frances
Frances Hardinge talks to readers after the Fantasy Worlds event. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fantasy Worlds with Frances Hardinge was jointly hosted with Seven Stories. How have Seven Stories enhanced your studies at Newcastle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My work is mostly text-based, so I’ve had less chances to use the archive than some researchers. But my research means that I have to think about things like what “British” children’s literature means, and nationhood, and heritage, and so having the national archive to hand is great. Plus, Seven Stories is a big part of why we’ve been able to establish a community of people who work on children’s literature, and having access to that community and the conversations it generates has been invaluable.<\/p>\n

What have you learnt from hosting Fantasy Worlds with Frances Hardinge?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To rehearse my introductions, and not to try to speed read seven books! (Alternatively, never to interview prolific authors.)<\/p>\n

Thanks Aishwarya! Aishwarya will be blogging as part of the <\/strong>Children\u2019s Literature in Newcastle<\/strong><\/a> blog and maintains a personal children\u2019s literature blog, <\/strong>Practically Marzipan<\/strong><\/a>. You can also find her on twitter <\/strong>@actuallyaisha<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Newcastle University\u2019s Children\u2019s Literature Unit and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children\u2019s Books were delighted to welcome Frances Hardinge, award-winning author of The Lie Tree, to Newcastle for a very special event. In conversation with the Children\u2019s Literature Unit\u2019s Aishwarya Subramanian, Frances talked about the borders between fantasy and reality and the … Continue reading “Fantasy Worlds with Frances Hardinge”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6222,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[6,4,17,28],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-students","tag-events","tag-partnership","tag-seven-stories","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}