In honour of historical novelist, Elizabeth Jane Corbett, the HNSA is delighted to be running the EJ Corbett Mentorship Contest which offers the chance for a previously unpublished author from Australia or New Zealand to receive a mentorship with Wendy J Dunn to develop an unpublished historical fiction manuscript for young adults.
The contest is for aspiring authors who have completed a rough first draft of their novel and need assistance in developing it into a publishable version. The winner will receive five (5) mentoring sessions at times to be arranged between the winner and tutor.
Wendy will read and assess the novel in its entirety, then meet with the mentee via Zoom, initially for 1-2 hours, to discuss the winner’s inspiration and goals, and to identify ‘roadblocks’ requiring Wendy’s assistance. She will provide in-depth feedback on plot, characterisation, pacing, dialogue, world building and effective use of research. Recordings of the Zoom sessions will provided together with Wendy’s comments and notes.
Three further 1-hour sessions, followed by a final 1-2 hour session, will then be arranged to track progress and provide encouragement and support. Wendy will also proofread the manuscript and provide comments on the way forward.
what is young adult fiction?
There is no hard and fast definition of young adult (YA) fiction but for the purposes of the contest, the novel is aimed at a readership age group between the ages of 12 and 18. Books generally explore themes and issues relevant to young readers including coming of age stories, interpersonal and/or family relationships etc and can cover mature and complex themes. The main character is usually of similar age to the targeted YA audience but there can be older characters in the story.
However, despite the guidelines above, it’s hard to lock down a genre that can cross over age groups from 12 years and onwards. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak or Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant are great examples. Only after a book has been published will you know if it is popular with young adults or any age group! Wendy has written a piece on young adult fiction which may be of help if you are considering entering the contest. Your book may well qualify even if you hadn’t originally thought of it as being young adult fiction!
Wendy mentored Alison Stegert, the winner of the 2020 EJ Corbett Mentorship contest, whose manuscript was published in 2024 as Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies.
MEET OUR MENTOR
Dr Wendy J Dunn is an award-winning Australian author, playwright and poet. She is the author of two Anne Boleyn novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and two Katherine of Aragon novels, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things. Her firstmajor nonfiction work, Henry VIII’s True Daughter: Catherine Carey, a Tudor Life, was published by Pen & Sword books in 2023. They have now commissioned Wendy to write a second nonfiction work.
A respected and longtime member of the Tudor writing community, Wendy was the Founding Editor of Backstory and Other Terrain, two academic writing journals belonging to Swinburne University. She is a sessional tutor for the university, receiving the Swinburne University Postgraduate Research Award. Wendy still manages Other Terrain.
Wendy is fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder. Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.
WHAT IS HISTORICAL FICTION?
For the purpose of the contest:
- An historical novel is one in which the majority of the narrative, namely, more than 50% of the events described, has taken place at least 50 years before publication.
- Historical subgenres considered to be historical fiction include historical mystery, historical romance, and historical fantasy and alternate history. Time-slip novels, multiple-time period novels, and parallel narrative novels are also considered historical fiction with flexibility to crossover between eras stretching from 50 years or more in the past until contemporary times provided more than 50% ofthe events described take place at least 50 years before publication.
ready to enter?
There is still time to enter the contest! Submissions close on 4 December 2024 .
