Writer’s Craft – SASFest—TIMOTHY SCHAFFERT

You have the characters, the narrator, the setting, the conflict – but what defines that indefinable quality that turns incident and anecdote into a novel? What role does plot, voice, and drama play? What’s the difference between a novel rich in sentiment and one that’s sentimental? On the occasion of The Titanic Survivors Book Club (April, 2024) his new novel about novels, Timothy Schaffert contemplates the form, the industry, and the imagination that determine a novel’s novelness.

Schaffert is Director of Creative Writing and Co-editor, ZERO STREET, the LGBTQ+ fiction series at U of Nebraska Press. He is the author of The Perfume Thief (Knopf Doubleday), a Penguin Random House International “One World, One Book” selection.