Welcome to Writers Talking 2026!!

I was thrilled to start the year with a fascinating conversation with author Amra Pajalic! In fact, we had so much to chat about that we decided to split it over 2 eps!!

In this first episode, we chatted about:

Writing fiction grounded in real historical trauma

We discuss the responsibility and ethical weight of fictionalising real events, particularly the Bosnian War and the Srebrenica genocide, and how to honour survivor experiences while still telling a compelling story.

Transforming academic research into a novel

A major thread is how the book emerged from a PhD project, the tension between historical research and storytelling, and the process of condensing vast research into an accessible narrative.

Blending crime fiction with historical reality

We explore why the crime genre was chosen as a framework, how a murder mystery can exist within a war setting, and how genre expectations allow readers to engage with darker material.

Identity, displacement, and inherited trauma

The conversation moves into personal and intergenerational experiences of migration, identity, ethnic division, and how political power fractures communities, both historically and in the present day.

So good!! We hope you got a lot out of our convo today...and hope you check back in for the second part of our convo tomorrow!

Discover more about Amra here:

Website - https://www.amrapajalic.com/

Instagram - ​https://www.instagram.com/amrapajalicauthor/

Substack - https://substack.com/@amrapajalic?

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amra-pajalic

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/author/amrapajalic

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