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Articles by Virginia Pye
The Speed of Time and What Counts as ”Historical Fiction” Today
Historical fiction, as defined by the Historical Novel Society, is any story written at least fifty years after the events described or written by someone not alive at the time of the story. The author must write from research, not from personal experience. Other authorities on historical fiction reduce the timeframe to twenty-five years, but essentially, the expectation is that the era of the story must be well past.
Writing the Books We Want Write
On a rainy winter evening in Somerville, a group of women authors were eating pizza and bowling candlepins at Sacco lanes when the topic of branding came up. That is, how a writer can feel pegged or slotted by her publisher and made to write one type of book over and over. Several of the more seasoned and successful authors complained that they aren’t “allowed” to write anything not in their lane, an apt metaphor as we watched a ball wobble down the polished floor before sliding into the gutter.
'We had fun': Interview with writer Anne Bernays
Anne Bernays, born in 1930, is the author of 10 novels, two books of nonfiction with her husband, the Pulitzer-winning author Justin Kaplan, and a highly successful book on the craft of writing with fellow Cambridge author Pamela Painter. Anne, Justin, and their two children moved in 1959 from the Upper West Side of New York to Frances Avenue near Somerville off Kirkland Street. In 2012, she moved to an apartment high-rise overlooking Memorial Drive and the Charles River.
To Be a Serious Writer, Become a Serious Reader
In my last essay for Writer Unboxed, I made a case for not sharing early drafts. For ignoring other voices, especially critical ones, and blocking out the constant noise of everyday life to protect space for the imagination. I encouraged fellow writers, especially newer ones, to listen to the tentative, inchoate voice within. In this essay, I pitch another approach to the writing craft: reading.
The best novels about a woman writer finding her own voice
Lily King’sWriters & Lovers is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1997, where my own novel takes place a century earlier. It’s a fictional coming-of-age story of a young woman who tries to write her way into adulthood.
Trying to Find My Voice on the Page: On Self-Doubt and Finding the Confidence it Takes to Write
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Trying to Find My Voice on the Page: On Self-Doubt and Finding the Confidence it Takes to Write
I’m twenty-two or twenty-three and sitting at the table playing cards with my father and brother. When it’s my turn, I admit I need the rules explained again. My mind is so distracted by self-doubts and worries about the family dynamics swirling around me that I can’t retain a simple game. My father says, as if stating the obvious, “You aren’t very bright, are you?” My brother hears him, and I think my mother across the room does, too. But none of us contradicts this statement of family fact.
Book review: Gilded Age author stands her ground in new historical fiction tale
In Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, the first Women’s Rights Convention began the slow process that led to profound but still unfinished progress. The title character, a brave young woman, lends her voice to the struggle in “The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann,” Virginia Pye’s third novel.
How the Dime Novel Created Women Readers and Writers
Fiction book sales have increased by over 22 percent in the past five years, and it’s commonly assumed that women are fueling the surge. They read more than men and prefer fiction to nonfiction. In fact, the great fiction boom has been led by romance novels. Women’s fiction has become a $24 billion dollar industry and the dismissive term “chick lit” has faded.
Virginia Pye at Harvard Book Store
presenting The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swan in conversation with MARJAN KAMALI Location Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 Tickets This event is free; no tickets are required. Harvard Book Store welcomes VIRGINIA PYE—author of Shelf Life of Happiness—for the launch of her latest novel The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swan. She will be joined in conversation by MARJAN KAMALI—award-winning author of The Stationery Shop.
Imbalance of Power
Mary Abigail Dodge (1833–1896), known by the pen name Gail Hamilton, was hailed in a national newspaper after her death as “the most brilliant woman of her generation.” Author of numerous essays and more than 25 books on religion, politics, travel, rural life, and the rights of women, Hamilton also played a key role in the evolution of publishing when she sued her publisher, James T. Fields (of the house Ticknor & Fields), for underpaying her.
Southern Literary Review
Caitlin Hamilton Summie (photo by to Alexandra Summie) In Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s beautiful debut novel, the heart of a family is peeled away, layer by layer, until we know each member intimately and with profound results. Sarah Macmillan cares deeply about the bonds that tie together the generations of her family. She’s a loving and attentive granddaughter, and it pains her to witness her grandparent’s demise as they age.
Book review: Pursuit of happiness theme among these eloquent short stories
A good novel can engage a reader for hours, even days. But a short story offers instant pleasures, and the difference in time required can be a determining factor in a busy life. After two acclaimed historical novels set in China—“River of Dust” and “Dreams of the Red Phoenix”—Virginia Pye turns to the briefer format in “Shelf Life of Happiness,” a collection of nine short stories, of which all but one are set in the U.S., and all of which focus on people who pursue—successfully or not—happiness.
SHELF LIFE OF HAPPINESS
In these nine stories, novelist Pye (Dreams of the Red Phoenix, 2015, etc.) writes about characters who are blind to their own feelings, to the feelings of others, or to the world at large.
ART 180: Change Through Art
As soon as Todd Hale, a professional artist and ART 180 program assistant, started chatting with a shy seventh-grader named Stephon in the cafeteria of Binford Middle School in Richmond, he knew he’d met a fellow artist. “I was immediately impressed with his mature perspective on the power of expression through making art,” says Hale. Stephon has since used the after-school art programs offered by ART 180 to, as he describes it, “Create collages to express Myself as the person that I am today.
China of My Mind
When I tell people that I have recently published a novel set in China, one of the first questions they ask is whether I've been there. My response seems to be a letdown. The expectant look on their faces shifts as they wonder why I chose to write about a place I've never visited. Sometimes I sense incredulity. What makes me think I can write about China? My grandfather, Watts O. Pye, was one of the early missionaries to return to China after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
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