Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

Straight from the Source: Jasmine A. Stirling on Writing Historical Nonfiction

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Jasmine Stirling is the award-winning author of A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice (Bloomsbury, 2021). Her next book: Dare to Question, about how undercover rebel Carrie Chapman Catt and her life partner Mary “Mollie” Hay made suffrage fashionable and fun, comes out in 2023. She’s now writing a book about a peasant woman who, while disguised as a man, became one of the world’s greatest botanists and explorers. Jasmine lives in an old house in San Francisco with her spouse, two daughters, and their absurdly adorable dog. She can often be spotted checking out enormous stacks of books from her local library.

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

All of the above. Thus far, I have written three nonfiction picture book biographies for publication as well as one YA narrative nonfiction title that isn’t quite finished. 

I got the idea for one of my books from listening to a Radiolab podcast. For another project, I took inspiration from an adult novel I loved (The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert) and decided I wanted to find a real figure in history that was somewhat like Gilbert’s fictional protagonist. For my debut, I wanted to learn more about Jane Austen, and help make her work more accessible and intriguing to young readers. It took a couple years of reading and thinking before I figured out the story that I wanted to tell about Austen’s life and work. 

All of these books began with an intuitive spark: the feeling of falling in love with a subject or story.

How do you conduct your research? 

Where possible, I rely on primary sources, such as letters housed by the Library of Congress, newspaper articles in online databases like Newspapers.com, and books published by the person I’m writing about (or someone who knew them). I reach out to scholars who are experts in the subject I am studying to ask them questions, get their thoughts about points I’m struggling with, and get their feedback on my work. I utilize the NYPL Ask a Librarian service, having them pull up resources such as atlases for specific roads on specific dates. 

I partner with my alma mater and local university, where I have a library pass as a visiting researcher, and thereby have access to a staff of academic librarians who collaborate with research institutions to get me materials that are otherwise challenging to acquire. I request materials that are on microfiche at the Library of Congress and have them transferred to my local library so that I can view the source material. I use Link+ in my public library system to get rare books from special collections. I use all kinds of online databases like JSTOR, and dig into oral histories in special collections. I work with local and regional centers dedicated to the person or topic that I am investigating.

I have hunted down and contacted living relatives closely related to people who made history at the turn of the century, and as a result have gotten access to materials that are not yet in museum collections or local archives. 

I have contacted the staff at historic hotels and asked them to go into the hotel room in which I know someone stayed, and had them take a photo of the view from that room, enabling me to write accurately about what the person saw when they looked out the window. I’ve had the same staff pull documents from their archives (such as hotel brochures) and corroborate accounts of who stayed in which hotel rooms, used which conference rooms, etc. during events that took place 100 years ago. 

I have hired researchers to go into archives that are not online, such as The Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts at the NYPL, asking them to access specific speeches and letters and take photographs of them for me. 

I’ve found that most of the time, people are excited to connect, help, and collaborate. 

Do you have a specific system for collecting data? 

I do not, except to say that if I want a piece of information so that I can tell my story in a particular way (by commenting on the weather at a key moment, for example), I go after it. If I can’t find it, I leave it out.

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

That depends on what is available and the length of the work. If know my story arc in advance, I will not spend too much time on researching ahead of time, because I don’t want to forget things and have to go back. I’m more likely to outline my project using chapter titles and then do the research for each chapter as I write, so that my work is as accurate as possible. If I am unsure what my story arc is going to be, I spend a lot more time doing broad research (sometimes months or longer) in an effort to figure out if there is a compelling story arc in the person’s life history that I wish to pursue as a book.

At what point do you feel comfortable beginning to draft? How does your research continue once you begin writing?

I might start a draft after reading a few secondary sources, or I might need more time, depending on how obvious the story arc and its themes are. I always research as I write. I always re-write, often extensively, and I often throw out whole drafts and start over. 

What is your favorite thing about research?

I love getting lost in the colorful, jaw-dropping, and beautiful stories of people who led fabulous, meaningful, and impactful lives. I love imagining the worlds they lived in. I often feel like my subjects are my friends. They keep me company and offer me strength and hope in a world that can sometimes feel scary and overwhelming.

What’s your least favorite thing about research?

I agonize over getting things right, and nearly always worry (or believe) that I have missed things, misrepresented things, or not done my subject justice. I have many fears related to writing nonfiction, including concerns about my biases (as an educated, first world, White woman). I rely heavily on sensitivity readers and subject matter experts, but these issues keep me up at night.

I also struggle with the picture book format, because I uncover so many fascinating things during my research that simply cannot fit into this format.

Classroom Connections: The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad

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genre: fantasy
age range: 8-12 years
themes: power, privilege, social responsibility
Alysa Wishingrad’s website

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection

A rich, inventive, captivating story of big injustices and small heroes, The Verdigris Pawn nods to classic fantasy while asking questions deeply relevant to our world. A magical adventure that readers will adore.
— Anne Ursu, author of The Lost Girl

Heartfelt, hopeful, and charming, The Verdigris Pawn is a deftly crafted tale that weaves adventure with purpose, beautifully illustrating how kids can change the world.
— Heather Kassner, author of The Plentiful Darkness

The Verdigris Pawn is a wonderful escape, a tale of truth, trust, and doing what’s right. Readers will delight in this fast-paced fantasy in which mistakes can be opportunities, power is not what it seems, and the seemingly helpless can have the greatest impact of all. A perfect debut for our times.
— Diane Magras, award-winning author of The Mad Wolf’s Daughter

Please tell us about your book.

THE VERDIGRIS PAWN is an upper middle grade fantasy adventure that’s perfect for readers who like classic middle grade novels like The False Prince, The Chronicles of Prydain, or the work of Diana Wynn Jones. There’s a timeless quality to the story— it’s a quest that takes place in a quasi-medieval time period– and yet it’s incredibly timely as it takes a very close look at issues around power, privilege, and social responsibility.

THE VERDIGRIS PAWN is the story of Beau, heir to the ruler of the Land, a man so frightening, people only dare call him Himself. Beau has been raised isolated and alone. And despite the harsh and judgmental treatment he gets from his father, he has no idea of the brutal tyranny Himself unleashes upon his subjects and how hated and feared their family is. 

This all changes when Beau meets Cressi, a young servant girl, who opens his eyes to the realities of life in the Land – and most especially about Mastery House, a terrible and brutal place where the children of the poor are sent to be raised and trained to be servants in exchange for their family’s taxes. 

This discovery of the truth sets Beau off on an epic adventure as he tries to undo the poisoned legacy of his family. But, to restore fairness and equality to the Land, he must think of things like a real-life game of Fist (a game similar to chess!).

But when you’re reviled throughout the Land and false heroes lurk around every corner, leading a rebellion is easier said than done.

This is a story about how appearances aren’t always what they seem and how real power can come from the most unlikely places.

What inspired you to write this story?

The inspiration for the book came from a writing prompt in a workshop some years ago. With the prompt, “tsk, tsk, poor little boy,” I saw this young boy being raised like a bird in a gilded cage in a manor house on a hill, an old man his guardian (or perhaps jailer). It also sparked a new writing voice for me—it took some time, but the story eventually evolved and unfolded.

I’m always deeply inspired by philosophy and politics—not along party lines, but rather how we organize ourselves in society. Power, truth, how easily people can be corrupted are important are concepts I think many upper middle grade readers are beginning to think about. This is a time when kids are beginning to realize that not only do adults not have all the answers, but that they can often be outright wrong.

With this story I really wanted to explore an issue that hits hard for readers this age; who do they want to be in this world, and how do you combat the voices/people in your life that try to force you into certain roles.

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

I did so much research for this book, and loved every minute of it! I read extensively on despots, how they gain power, how they hold on to it, and how they lose it. I also spent a lot of time reading and researching life in medieval times. What was a day like, a year? What was the common diet for the rich, the poor, and the merchant class? How did the marketplace work, and what took place at harvest festivals?

There were so many fascinating rabbit holes that I fell into while building the world of this book. But if I had to choose a favorite line of research, I think it would have to be the reading I did on the power of plants and herbs to both heal and harm. Many of the plants that Cressi uses in her brews are real, with real-world benefits, and sometimes, real-world dangers. Then there are some that I fabricated, but even those have some relationship to our world and the art of medicinal healing.

What are some special challenges associated with creating a game for a book?

Well, I must begin by saying that game design is an entire art! I have such high regard for the geniuses who create games. I do not have a background in game design, or even much gaming, so it did pose a challenge for me.

I knew that the game of Fist needed to be many things—it needed to be a compelling game, difficult to master, and yet also be accessible and somewhat recognizable to the reader. And it also needed to be an allegory, a reflection of the action and players in the story while not hamstringing me too much with the rules of play. That’s why the playable game came after the book—I knew if I was too focused on the actual rules of play it might force the story to serve the game, not allow the game to serve the story.

To build Fist I researched the genesis of chess, explored ancient games such as hnefatafl, an old Viking game of strategy, and Xiangqi, an ancient Chinese game. There’s an incredibly rich history of games as teaching tools, and at times instruments of subversion providing the blueprint for revolution.

I worked with James Earnest of Crab Fragment Games to complete the game design of Fist so that readers can play! The game is still in the BETA stage at this point, and I have to add the caveat that the rules, as written right now, are not geared toward young readers, BUT if anyone would like to give it a go, we’d love to hear about your experience through the feedback form here at the link. To play all you’ll need a chess set and a set of checkers – and any game piece you’d like to stand in for the verdigris pawn! I hope you’ll give it a go!

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

The Verdigris Pawn explores questions around social structure, power, and privilege—what is it, who has it, what did they do to get it, and in many cases, how far are they willing to go to hold onto to power?

The story explores socio-economic divides and the structures those in power put in place to maintain the divisions. It also tackles the issue of how history is told, whose stories get handed down and what happens to the truth when history is, as it has always been, written by the victors. It opens the door for young readers to explore their own privileges, even when they are hard to see, and provides a road map to empower them to use both their strengths and perceived weakness to create meaningful change in their own lives, their communities, and the wider world.

Straight from the Source: Irene Latham and Charles Waters on Writing Historical Fiction

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Irene Latham and Charles Waters are “Poetic Forever Friends” first and collaborators second. They are the writing team behind Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship, which was awarded a Charlotte Huck Honor, and Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z, an NCTE Notable Poetry book. They share a passion for poetry and are committed to creating meaningful books for young readers. African Town is their first novel together.

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?

In this case, the characters were already established (since they are real people), as was the basic storyline. But of course there were a lot of holes in the research, particularly concerning the women onboard Clotilda. That’s where we got to use our imagination to create agency and to build relationships and motivations.

How do you conduct your research? 

We used a combination of many different methods, including but not limited to reading books and articles, youtube videos, current news articles (we set Google alerts for ourselves), reaching out to descendants, on-site research in Mobile, visiting various landmarks like the church and cemetery the Clotilda Africans founded, and hiring a fact-checker to make sure we used Yorùbá words and phrases correctly. 

What kinds of sources do you use? The more specifics here, the better!

We were lucky in that there were scholarly works available to us which not only provided something of a skeleton for events, but also pointed us to other primary sources—like the captain of the Clotilda William Foster’s personal journal. We spent some time in the Mobile Library of Local History and Genealogy, and the librarians there, Ann Biggs and Valerie Ellis, were so great to help us out in person and via email when later in the process more questions emerged.

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

In our case we started reading chapters in various books and started drafting shortly thereafter as we continued reading, putting the initial draft together piecemeal. Even though our editor, the esteemed Stacey Barney, saw the “1st draft” of the manuscript it was actually our 4th full draft which took about seven months to put together. We are so grateful to author and teacher, Kathy Erskine, who read an early draft before we sent it to Stacey and gave us vital feedback in terms of—among other things—telescoping the story to give it more clarity. 

What are some obstacles writing historical fiction brings?

One of the difficulties for us was sifting through conflicting information in the research, and ultimately being forced to decide which to use in our book. This is where an Author’s Note can be so helpful—we used it as a place to share with the reader the choices we made, and why.

What’s one of the most interesting things you’ve learned while researching?

It was fascinating to learn the actual location of the remains of the Clotilda, which had remained a mystery for decades due to the faulty information Timothy Meaher provided—his aim was to evade the authorities, as his actions were punishable by death. Many years later, William Foster, who manned the Clotilda, set the record straight by revealing the actual location in his journal, which helped Ben Raines find the ship in 2019. 

Because life isn’t always clear cut, the motives behind our actions don’t always make sense. But stories need to follow a logical path. What sorts of decisions have you had to make about “muddy” historical figures or events in order for your book to work?

One of the big decisions we had to make was when to get out of the story, where to end. It’s important to us (and to readers) to end on a hopeful note, but what we found was that the tragedies continued for many of the shipmates. We were able to find this one pocket of time just after the death of both our antagonists (Timothy Meaher and William Foster) but before more deaths in the community of African Town in which our main characters are all flourishing in the home they created for themselves. That allowed us a truthful happy ending, and we were able to include what happened after 1901 in our back matter.

Why is historical fiction important?

When looking back at stories from history such as African Town, Black Wall Street, and Japanese Internment camps—to name a few—it baffles us as to why we weren’t taught this growing up. In this watershed moment in publishing and the world, it’s vital as the blood coursing through our veins to learn about these hidden stories of our country’s complicated past, to shed light on them and hope as humans we grow from reading of these experiences which shape us all, whether we recognize it or not. 

Thank you so much, Irene and Charles. I wanted to add that African Town is a verse novel, told in the voices of a number of characters — even the ship Clotilda. I look forward to sharing my review of this incredible book in April, during National Poetry Month.