Migrating from nonfiction to fiction: writing between porous borders

While traditionally non-fiction has required the writer to stand outside the work to deliver an objective assessment of evidence-based information, fiction has placed the writer inside the work to explore the creative possibilities. Given the rise in popularity of the historical novel it could be argued that creative writers may now legitimately position themselves between the porous borders of the two dominant literary genres, borrowing from both in the subgenre of historiographic metafiction. This thesis is submitted for a PhD by artefact and exegesis. The artefact explores the under-documented 'herstory' of Victoria’s goldfields based on extensive research creating new knowledge about this significant gap. The exegesis looks at how practice-led research provided a viable pathway to creating a literary construct borrowing from both nonfiction and fiction.