Jenny Barden

Jenny Barden has at various times been an artist, city solicitor, farmer, and an historical novelist.

A chance encounter with a portrait by Carel Fabritius triggered a passion for writing. Journeys of discovery then led to two books published by Ebury Press (Penguin Random House). ‘Mistress of the Sea’ is based on one of Francis Drake’s early adventures; ‘The Lost Duchess’ is centred on the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

Jenny has just finished a romantic thriller set at the time of the Spanish Armada in the court of Elizabeth I.

Maryka Biaggio

Maryka Biaggio specializes in historical fiction based on real people. Doubleday published her debut novel, Parlor Games. Eden Waits, The Point of Vanishing, and The Model Spy were published by Sunbury Press.

Her latest novel, Gun Girl and the Tall Guy was released by Pegasus Press in 2025. Her fiction has won several accolades, including Willamette Writers Award, Oregon Writers Colony Award, Historical Novel Society Review Editors’ Choice, La Belle Lettre Award, and an Upper Peninsula of Michigan Notable Books Award.

She served on the Board of the Historical Novel Society North America Conference from 2015-2025.

Kate Braithwaite

Kate Braithwaite is the author of four historical novels, including The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph, and The People Next Door, a contemporary thriller.

Originally from Scotland, Kate studied English at Leeds University and has subsequently lived in Canada and the US. An editor, reviewer, and feature writer for HNS, Kate leans toward biographical and literary historical novels, focusing on untold or forgotten women’s history, although a good gothic mystery or witty romance will always catch her eye.

Her Substack publication, Sis-Stories, features notable historical sisters, as well as novels, new and old, where sister stories take centre stage.

Leslie Carroll

Leslie Carroll is the author of twenty-two books in three genres: women’s fiction, historical fiction, and historical nonfiction. She is also a professional actress and an award-winning audiobook narrator.

Her novels have been translated into several languages and optioned for film and television; and she can be seen spilling the royal tea on Travel Channel, NatGeo, and History Channel documentaries.

A native New Yorker, Leslie and her husband reside a stone’s throw from Central Park.

Christopher Cevasco

Christopher M. Cevasco’s debut historical novel, BEHELD: GODIVA'S STORY, was published by Lethe Press (US) in 2022. He's currently writing a series of novels for Sapere Books (UK) based on the earliest Arthurian legends, the first of which will be published in 2026.

Chris was editor of the award-winning PARADOX: THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORICAL AND SPECULATIVE FICTION from 2003 to 2009 and has been attending HNS conferences since 2005. He served as Registration Chair for the 2023 HNS North America conference in San Antonio, TX, and was Program Chair for the 2025 conference in Las Vegas, NV.

Kevin Connolly

Kevin Connolly is the author of Yeats and Sligo (Brandon Books, 2010) and Arise and Go: W.B. Yeats and the People and Places that Inspired Him (O’Brien Press, 2019). Kevin has just finished writing a biography of Charles Stewart Parnell called Parnell - An Interpretation. His writings have been published in journals and newspapers both in Ireland and abroad as well as on the radio.

Kevin possesses a Masters Degree in Library Science with an emphasis on academic research. He has facilitated numerous courses for The Irish Writers Centre in Dublin focussing on research for writing projects.

Carol M Cram

Carol M. Cram is the author of four award-winning historical novels including The Choir, The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, and The Muse of Fire.

She is the founder of the Art In Fiction Website and The Art In Fiction Podcast on which she interviews authors who write novels inspired by the arts, and runs the Artsy Traveler blog.

She was on faculty at Capilano University for over 20 years and holds an MA in Drama and an MBA.

She lives on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Canada, with her husband, artist Gregg Simpson.

Anne Easter Smith

Anne Easter Smith is the author of a series of six books set during the Wars of the Roses, including the bestselling "A Rose for the Crown."

She is an expert on Richard III and respected for her historical accuracy and attention to period detail.

An experienced panelist and moderator, she has served in many HNS conferences, literary festivals, and writers’ conferences, including at the San Miguel de Allende world-renowned conference, where she also taught two research workshops.

Constance Emmett

Constance Emmett was born in Brooklyn, New York, where her mother's family landed after leaving Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Irish family stories inspired her Finding Their Way Home series: Heroine of Her Own Life and the sequel Everything Will Be All Right.

Constance is at work on the third book in that series and is planning a sequel to Revolutionary War era Bound, also based on an ancestor, Henry Emmett, an indentured servant brought to Philadelphia in 1775.

She lives in rural Massachusetts and is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Irish Writers Union.

Louise Fein

Louise writes historical fiction, focussed around unheard voices or from unusual perspectives.

Her novels have variously been international best sellers, shortlisted for literary awards, and translated into multiple foreign languages. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today's world.

Her latest novel, Book of Forbidden Words, set in a world of banned books, censorship and a fear of new ideas, is about three women, separated by 400 years, whose lives become entwined around an encrypted manuscript.

Louise lives in the Surrey countryside with her family and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets.

Kate Forsyth

Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author and performance storyteller whose work has sold almost 2 million copies across 20 different languages.

Historical novels for adults include Bitter Greens, a retelling of Rapunzel which won the American Library Award for Best Historical Fiction, and The Wild Girl, named Most Memorable Love Story of the year. Children’s books include Kate Forsyth’s Long- Lost Fairy Tales, which was a CBCA Honour Book in 2024.

Kate has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing & a Doctorate of Creative Arts, and runs writing and literary retreats in Greece, Scotland and the Cotswolds.

Amanda Geard

Amanda Geard is a historical novelist and exploration geologist, two careers perfect for uncovering the past—whether from eons or a century ago.

Her debut, The Midnight House, was inspired by a manor on Ireland's coast, where she discovered a message hidden in the rafters. Her second novel, The Moon Gate, intertwines the secrets of a crumbling house with three generations of women in Ireland and Australia. Her most recent novel, The Glass Key, is set in occupied Norway.

A former fiction tutor at the University of Galway, she loves reading and writing stories that sweep across time and place.

Margaret George

Margaret George is the award-winning author of eight biographical novels, from the Tudor era (Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I), and the ancient world (Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Mary Magdalene, and Nero).

Her "Memoirs of Cleopatra" was made into an Emmy-nominated ABC-TV miniseries in 1999. Her books have been New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers with twenty foreign editions.

Margaret has been a speaker at Hampton Court, the Tower of London, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. She has been a member of HNS since 2009 as a keynote speaker, panel member, and blue pencil café mentor.

Jean Gill

Welsh author and photographer Jean Gill now lives in Provence with the best scent-hound in the world, a Nikon D750 and a man. First published as a poet in 1988, she has written over twenty-five books in various genres, including translation from French.

Her epic medieval adventures in The Troubadours and The Midwinter Dragon series have gained HNS Editor’s Choice reviews and her many award credits include the HNS Short Story Competition 2nd place, Glasgow 2018.

She is currently completing her twelfth century Orkney Vikings quartet which includes characters and stories from 'The Orkneyinga Saga'.

Joanna Hickson

Joanna Hickson took to country life and writing historical fiction after a career in journalism, on radio and television in England and Scotland.

Since publishing her debut novel, ‘The Agincourt Bride’, she has gone on to publish many more based on the Tudor dynasty and has attracted an enthusiastic following of readers in Britain and around the world.

‘The House of Seymour' is her eighth novel; the first set in her home county of Wiltshire, and Wolf Hall, where Queen Jane Seymour grew up.

Lenore Hart

Lenore Hart is a poet, short-story author, and novelist of historical and speculative fiction who also writes as Elisabeth Graves.

Her twelve traditionally-published books include 7 novels, a children’s picture book, and 4 volumes of a fantastic-fiction anthology set in the world of a time-traveling exotic bazaar. She's won or been a finalist for various fiction and poetry prizes, including HNS's First Chapters' genre and grand prizes; The Shirley Jackson Award, and Exeter Novel Prize.

A retired professor of undergraduate and graduate writing programs, she's fiction and memoir faculty at the Ossabaw Island Writers Retreat, and fiction editor at Northampton House Press.

T E Kinsey

Tim Kinsey grew up in London and studied History at the University of Bristol.

He writes cosy murder mysteries under the name T E Kinsey, including the enduringly popular Lady Hardcastle series set in Edwardian Gloucestershire.

He lives just outside Bristol where he plays the drums and is still, after more than 40 years of trying, attempting to learn to play the guitar.

Pam Lecky

Pam Lecky is an Irish writer of historical and contemporary crime.

Her debut novel, The Bowes Inheritance, was shortlisted for the Carousel Aware Prize. She is the author of the Victorian Lucy Lawrence Murder Mysteries (Storm Publishing), the Sarah Gillespie WW2 espionage series, and a standalone WW2 police procedural entitled Under A Lightning Sky (Avon Books UK).

In 2026, the fifth book in her Victorian series will be published along with the first book in her new contemporary crime series set in the West of Ireland.

She is a member of the HNS, the CWA, and the SoA.