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.

"A really useful essay collection in which critic practitioners explore speculative biography in inventive and subtle ways, adding valuable terms to theory and critical debate. Drawing on challenges across a wide range of projects, contributors make their encounters with narrative difficulties into productive conversations that will inspire and interest life writing scholars."- Clare Brant, Centre for Life-Writing Research, King’s College London "At a time when life narratives declare themselves biofiction, autofiction, creative non-fiction, or simply "based on a true story," Speculative Biography: Experiments, Opportunities, and Provocations applies critical and theoretical rigor to life representation as a product and a practice. Its contributors describe and assess challenges encountered and answered in the process of assembling and imagining a "life world," as archive, supposition, and method come together in narratives that acknowledge the nuances of represented truth" - Craig Howes, Director, Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

• Part 1. Contexts and MethodsChapter 1: Experiments, Opportunities and Provocations in Speculative Biography: Opening and OverviewDonna Lee Brien and Kiera LindseyChapter 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 BrienChapter 3: The Speculative Method: Scientific Guesswork and Narrative as LaboratoryKiera LindseyPart 2. ExperimentsChapter 4: On the Threshold: Conceptual SpeculationFfion Murphy with Donna Lee Brien and Kiera LindseyChapter 5: Show Your Workings: Towards A Creative Historical ToolkitWilliam G. PooleyChapter 6: Scrying the Lost Wildflowers of ‘Wee Witchee Wee’Kiera Lindsey Chapter 7: Writing to Save Sun Bears: Speculating about Non-Human Characters within BiographySarah Pye with Paul WilliamsChapter 8: Choreographing George Balanchine: The Life as Ballet ProgramJessica WilkinsonPart 3. OpportunitiesChapter 9: Speculating about a Spy: Working with ‘Suspicious Sources’ in Deciphering the Life of Ralph HarryLaura ThompsonChapter 10: Based on the Evidence and My Experience: The Role of Speculative Biography in a Decolonised Reimagining of the Bungalow, Alice Springs 1914–1929Linda WellsChapter 11: Bespoke Biography: Writing Fiona Foley Provocateur: An Art LifeLouise Martin-ChewChapter 12: Using Informed Imagination When Writing About Controversial Characters: The Case of Dr Felix Kersten and HimmlerAnne M. CarsonPart 4. ProvocationsChapter 13: Speculative Historical Viability: A Grave Undertaking?Paul SandringhamChapter 14: Challenges and Limitations of Speculation in True Crime Biography: A Lawyer’s LensRachel SpencerChapter 15: Biographical ‘Facts’ and Speculative Forms: Writing John and Rose Morley Through New EyesKevin A. MorrisonChapter 16: The Curious Case of Cornelius Cardew: An Exercise in Reflective SpeculationHarriet CunninghamChapter 17: Why Not Tell?: Eddie Samuels, the Authentic Self and the Novel as Speculative AutobiographyJames WornerChapter 18: Speculative Biography as Dewdrop: Writing Women’s LivesDeborah Jordan