KATHERINE LIM

A Filipina woman in her 40s, with long black hair.

 

 

 

I’m a Filipino-British writer currently based in London but who also calls New York home. I am a 2022 Grace Paley Fellowship recipient at Under the Volcano, Tepoztlán, Mexico, a 2021 Desert Nights, Rising Stars Fellow at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing in Tempe, Arizona, a three-time Finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition (2019-21), and a mentor for PitchWars and #DVMentor. My writing has received support from the Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Cill Rialaig, Ireland, Norton Island Residency, Maine, Faber Llull Residency, Spain, Yefe Nof, Hambidge, InCahoots, and Sundress Academy of the Arts. “The Party”, a short story about Vita Sackville-West, was performed at the Tara Arts Theatre, London. I’ve received fellowships and/or scholarships from Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Aspen Summer Words, Colgate Writers’ Conference, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Loft Literary, Key West Literary Seminar, and the Arvon Foundation, and have an MA in Creative Writing from Keble College, Oxford University, where I was the Faith-Ivens Franklin scholar.

I’m passionate about writing fiction that challenges how we view history.

Read more about Katherine on her website.

SESSION: Queering Historical Fiction: Who Gets to Tell Which Stories?

In historical fiction about queer lives, questions that often arise are: “Is there any evidence that the character(s) are gay? Or, if they are fictional, are their situations accurately portrayed?” But these may not be the right questions to ask. This workshop invites readers to enter the interstices in history in which the inner lives of queer people are reimagined. Reading excerpts from novels and short stories, we’ll seek to understand what each writer is doing in contextualizing real-life historical events within fiction, and find inspiration in these techniques for our own writing. Participants will discuss notions of stereotyping, power, and privilege. We will discuss diverse sources such as Julie Orringer, Robert Jones Jr., Thomas Mallon, and Sarah Waters, among others.