William Durbin – The Truth In Historical Fiction
Minnesota author William Durbin demonstrated how to use people and events from your personal and community history as the basis for writing creative fiction. Durbin shared a collection of archival photos and discussed how he wrote and researched his novels, most of which are set in the Midwest and deal with familiar subjects such as immigration, homesteading, logging, mining, the Great Depression, and war. Program held at the Moorhead Library on March 29, 2010.
Partner Organization(s): Moorhead Public Schools
Moorhead Public Schools and LARL agreed to share the mileage, food and hotel costs. Moorhead Public Schools hosted 3 performances by Mr. Durbin.
38 people attended the activity
Measurable Outcomes may be collected by survey, anecdotal responses, post-test; End user change in Behavior, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Condition and/or Status
Questionnaires were filled out by attendees. The following are answers received: 1. What did you learn from this program?
- Information about Finland
- Letter Agents are needed to sell books and manuscripts
- The speaker was very good
- Information about Durbin's writing experience.
2. How will you use the information learned?
- To write books.
- I should start writing.
- I will file the information away for future use.
3. How did you hear about the program?
- I heard about it from school.
- My teacher told me.
- My mom.
- MPR
- Flyer
- In the library five minutes before the program.
4. Any additional comments?
- This place is Great!!!
- · He is a great author.
Staff also reported on what they heard at the program, below are some of the comments:
- “That was a really great program.”
- “He made all of his stories sound so interesting…I had to buy three books.”
- “The program was different than advertised.” (2)
- “Fun to hear the regional discussion”.
- “Good PR”
- “It was nice to see so many different age groups at one program.” (2)
- “Great to see 10-year-old boys interested in a program like this.”