Description
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
“The Unexpected and Sometimes Bizarre Delights of a Literary Life”
Becoming a writer and published novelist changed my life in unanticipated ways. From years of rejection from literary magazines and publishers to international publication, from an endorsement by Missouri Senator McCaskill on The Rachel Maddow Show to a question about one of my books on Jeopardy, the literary life has not always been what I imagined, much less what’s ever mentioned in writing manuals. My talk will focus on this roller-coaster of a journey and on what I’ve learned along the way.
BIOGRAPHY
Sandra Gulland is the author of six books of historical fiction including her bestselling, captivating trilogy about Josephine Bonaparte, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Her novels have been published in fifteen countries and translated into thirteen languages.
Her consuming interest in Josephine Bonaparte and the Napoleonic era was sparked in 1972 when she read a biography of Josephine. Decades of research followed. In-depth research required knowledge of French, which she continues to study on an ongoing basis. As well, she has traveled to France, Italy, and Martinique, and has consulted with period scholars.
Her novel, Mistress of the Sun, was published in 2008, followed by The Shadow Queen, both set in 17th century France in the court of the Louis XIV who was known as the Sun King. Her latest novel, The Game of Hope, a young adult novel about Josephine’s precocious daughter Hortense, will be published in 2018.
Sandra grew up in Berkeley, California; moved to Canada in 1969; and became a Canadian citizen in 1980.
