Miriam will join fellow Regal House authors on a panel presentation in Chicago for the biannual Regal Retreat.

When a novel’s plot and characters center around abuse, addiction, crime, racial tension, or dangerous relationships, how do writers balance realism with compassion for our characters, our readers, and ourselves? How do we bear direct witness in our work while honoring the reader’s power to imagine? Our panel of novelists will discuss the art and challenge of depicting the difficult. We’ll discuss the artistic and ethical choices we make when shaping a story and characters around controversial or upsetting subjects. How do we portray complex or distressing situations and troubled characters with honesty and empathy? How do we decide when to bring our unflinching eye to a scene, and when to bring nuance? How do joy, revelation, and forgiveness add complexity rather than easy resolutions to difficult subjects and characters? We’ll also discuss the impact on the writer of writing about emotionally or psychologically challenging material when we can no longer keep silent. 

Panelists: Miriam Gershow, Carol LaHines, Megan A. Schikora, Lauren Hulthen Thomas, Katie Scott Crawford (moderator).