Speculative Biography

Donna Lee Brien is Emeritus Professor of Creative Industries at Central Queensland University, Australia. Specialising in research on genres of non-fiction writing, Donna has published 23 books and monographs. Author of The Shadow Side of Nursing: Paradox, Image and Identity (with Margaret McAllister, 2020), co-edited collections include Writing the Australian Beach: Local Site, Global Idea (2020), Publishing and Culture (2019), Offshoot: Contemporary Life Writing Methodologies and Practice (2018), The Routledge Companion to Literature and Food (2018) and Recovering History through Fact and Fiction: Forgotten Lives (2017). Past President of national peak body the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, Donna co-edits The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. Kiera Lindsey is a Senior Research Fellow conducting an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award on speculative biography and historical craft at the University of Technology Sydney. She has published book chapters and journal articles on nineteenth-century history, historical craft and biography. Her first speculative biography, The Convict’s Daughter was published in 2018 and described as ‘fearlessly carving a new path between history and fiction’. Her second is concerned with colonial artist and republican, Adelaide Ironside. Kiera has been an on-camera historian and a regular guest on ABC Radio National. She is currently an executive councillor with the History Council of New South Wales.

Part 1. Contexts and Methods

Chapter 1:

Experiments, Opportunities and Provocations in Speculative Biography: Opening and Overview

Donna Lee Brien and Kiera Lindsey

Chapter 2:

A New Contextualisation of ‘"The Facts Formed a Line of Buoys in the Sea of My Own Imagination": History, Fiction and Speculative Biography’"

Donna Lee Brien

Chapter 3:

The Speculative Method: Scientific Guesswork and Narrative as Laboratory

Kiera Lindsey

Part 2. Experiments

Chapter 4:

On the Threshold: Conceptual Speculation

Ffion Murphy with Donna Lee Brien and Kiera Lindsey

Chapter 5:

Show Your Workings: Towards A Creative Historical Toolkit

William G. Pooley

Chapter 6:

Scrying the Lost Wildflowers of ‘Wee Witchee Wee’

Kiera Lindsey

Chapter 7:

Writing to Save Sun Bears: Speculating about Non-Human Characters within Biography

Sarah Pye with Paul Williams

Chapter 8:

Choreographing George Balanchine: The Life as Ballet Program

Jessica Wilkinson

Part 3. Opportunities

Chapter 9:

Speculating about a Spy: Working with ‘Suspicious Sources’ in Deciphering the Life of Ralph Harry

Laura Thompson

Chapter 10:

Based on the Evidence and My Experience: The Role of Speculative Biography in a Decolonised Reimagining of the Bungalow, Alice Springs 1914–1929

Linda Wells

Chapter 11:

Bespoke Biography: Writing Fiona Foley Provocateur: An Art Life

Louise Martin-Chew

Chapter 12:

Using Informed Imagination When Writing About Controversial Characters: The Case of Dr Felix Kersten and Himmler

Anne M. Carson

Part 4. Provocations

Chapter 13:

Speculative Historical Viability: A Grave Undertaking?

Paul Sandringham

Chapter 14:

Challenges and Limitations of Speculation in True Crime Biography: A Lawyer’s Lens

Rachel Spencer

Chapter 15:

Biographical ‘Facts’ and Speculative Forms: Writing John and Rose Morley Through New Eyes

Kevin A. Morrison

Chapter 16:

The Curious Case of Cornelius Cardew: An Exercise in Reflective Speculation

Harriet Cunningham

Chapter 17:

Why Not Tell?: Eddie Samuels, the Authentic Self and the Novel as Speculative Autobiography

James Worner

Chapter 18:

Speculative Biography as Dewdrop: Writing Women’s Lives

Deborah Jordan