Australian academics awarded romance research grant

31 March 2015 Books+Publishing

A group of Australian academics have been awarded funding from the Romance Writers of America’s (RWA) Academic Research Grant Program.

Beth Driscoll from the University of Melbourne, Lisa Fletcher from the University of Tasmania and Kim Wilkins from the University of Queensland—who is also a romance author under the pseudonym Kimberley Freeman—will use the funding to study ‘the genre world of romance in 21st-century Australia’.

Driscoll told Books+Publishing that the project ‘will build knowledge about Australian romance fiction by investigating how Australian romance fiction texts, their authors, and other people in the publishing industry build and maintain the genre in Australia’.

The project will feature three case studies of romance novels published in the past two years, including ‘different subgenres such as paranormal romance, romantic suspense and historical romance, a mix of debut and established authors, and different publishing formats and platforms’, said Driscoll. The project will include interviews with the authors, as well as agents, editors and publishers involved in the books.

‘Outcomes of our research will include a free e-book of interviews and an academic journal article,’ said Driscoll.

The RWA’s grant program seeks to develop and support academic research devoted to genre romance novels, writers and readers. For more information, visit the website here.

Category: Local news