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Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon
In contemporary publishing, novels fixated on the past rather than the present have garnered the most attention and prestige.
The likely honorees include Percival Everett’s James, set in the antebellum South; Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars, which spans 150 years, beginning in the 1860s; Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise, split between 1980, World War II, and the present; and Claire Messud’s This Strange Eventful History, whose multigenerational plot runs from 1940 to 2010. Over the past five decades, writers of color have been celebrated, prized, and canonized almost exclusively for the writing of historical fiction: narratives of war, immigration, colonialism, and enslavement that span generations and honor previously disregarded histories. In the coming months, our writers will be working to bring you what you need to know—from John Nichols on the election, Elie Mystal on justice and injustice, Chris Lehmann ’s reporting from inside the beltway, Joan Walsh with insightful political analysis, Jeet Heer ’s crackling wit, and Amy Littlefield on the front lines of the fight for abortion access.
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