Hilary McCollum

• Seamus Heaney Centre, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen’s University Belfast
• Email: hmccollum03@qub.ac.uk

In my research I am considering the potential for contemporary lesbian historical fiction to narrate a history of same-sex relationships between women. My investigation has two main components, one critical and one creative. On the critical side, I am analysing Emma Donoghue's Life Mask and Virginia Woolf's Orlando and the approach of each writer to creating a lesbian fiction in the context of partial, fragmentary and obtuse documentary sources. On the creative side, I am developing my own historical fiction, set in 1928, which combines both invented and real historical characters and events. 

Supervisory Team: Dr Glenn Patterson, Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry (QUB), Dr Alex Murray, Arts, English and Languages (QUB).

Start Date: September 2017