“Write what you know,” said Katherine Dubois.
As a guest speaker for Wofford’s Women’s History Month Celebrations, Katharine Dubois visited the campus to give students, faculty and the community a new perspective on writing. With these few words, Dubois has been able to summarize her entire career as an author.
Dubois is a bestselling novelist who has written over twenty books that fall under the category of “historical romance.” Writing under the alias of “Katharine Ashe,” Dubois has been able to find her way onto the Amazon Best Books of the Year list and redefine what romance should look like in today’s world.
On top of this, Dubois has taught several courses at her alma mater Duke University. Her classes strive to combine history and fantasy, as well as give students a greater understanding of the marketing behind book publishing.
While many of the subjects that she teaches are seen as unconventional, she has found a way to seamlessly integrate the information in a way that her students are able to find interesting.
“History, fiction – these are often dichotomized,” said Dubois. “History is facts. Fiction is make-believe. History is rigorous, serious and weighty. Fiction is fun, fluffy and frisky. I think that you will find, as I have, that the supposed abyss between serious history and frivolous romance fiction is not what many believe.”
Although people have many different interpretations of what romance should look like, Dubois focuses on two main areas: the style and the purpose.
“In short, the style of a modern romance novel is just about any style you can imagine,” said Dubois. “The purpose of genre romance is to entertain or to lift the spirits and definitely to escape. Also to advocate for people and causes and to educate. But above all, to move us to tears to laughter to despair.”
Another goal of Dubois’ discussion was to narrow down what the genre of romance should look like.
“A genre romance novel will always include two elements: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending,” said Dubois.
While Dubois has gotten a lot of negative criticism for writing about romance but advocates that there is power in the subject and should be embraced by all people.
“I took away from her talk that women’s empowerment through romance novels is important, not trashy or wrong,” said Ally McDonough ‘22. “It is important (for) women have the space and the opportunity to write and read something that makes them feel good, even when the world looks down upon it.”
In this way, Dubois is inspiring the next generation of readers to look more deeply into the information that they are reading and how it is influencing society.
“Dr. Dubois gave me a new perspective on who wrote romance novels because it isn’t just women who write down their fantasies but instead are written by women, including Dr. Dubois, who are highly educated feminists who want to combine knowledge and pleasure into one story,” said McDonough.
The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion worked diligently to ensure that Dubois was able to speak on campus. As a gift to the attendants of the talk, Dwain Pruitt, Wofford’s chief equity officer, was able to offer signed copies of several of Dubois’ bestselling novels.
