Appearing on the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Historians & Their Histories podcast, COURAGE to WRITE Grantee Monique Hayes discusses her historical fiction novel on Sally Forth.
Hayes’ novel follows two African American brothers who take opposing paths during the American Revolution. She shares the challenges of writing about a period with few first-person narratives from African Americans, the excitement of discovering primary sources like Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book and Continental Army orderly books, and how being in Boston during the 250th anniversary commemoration has enriched her understanding of Revolutionary War-era spaces.
Monique recently went to the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Nova Scotia to do on the ground research for her novel. She will be doing more research thanks to a Maryland Creativity Grant, visiting three libraries in New York this Spring. It’s been an honor to support her work and see where it takes her next!
Monique Hayes is a historical fiction author, poet, and screenwriter who’s currently working on a novel about two enslaved brothers who take very different paths to gain their freedom during the Revolutionary War. She is the recipient of a 2024-25 NERFC Fellowship, an American Antiquarian Society Fellowship, and an inaugural Courage to Write Grant (the de Groot Foundation).