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Hello and welcome to a History of Egypt podcast interview.

My guest today is Dr. Colleen Darnell, who's going to speak to us about New Kingdom

historical fiction.

This is a genre of work within the ancient Egyptian canon, in which scribes would describe

the deeds of earlier rulers as works of literature in their own right.

Dr. Darnell published a book on this subject in

2013 titled Imagining the Past, Historical Fiction in New Kingdom Egypt. Colleen sat down with the show

to discuss this book, the texts themselves, and the various ways we can imagine ancient writers engaging and even playing

with fiction, tropes, and historical people. It is a fun discussion, ranging from the calamitous death

of Sickenin Rata to the triumphs of Tutmos and Ramesses, to the divine pageantry of ancient chariots,

and why the pharaoh is more like Superman or Sherlock Holmes than you might expect.

Anyway, allow me to introduce Dr. Colleen Darnell.

Good morning, Colleen Darnell. Welcome to the History of Egypt podcast. How are you today?

I'm doing wonderfully, and I'm so happy to be here. Excellent. You're speaking to us from the eastern United States, Connecticut region. Is that correct?

Yes. We are in a small town in the middle of Connecticut. And you've just come back from an excavation or project season in Egypt. So what were

you working on at the moment? In May and much of June, I was working with my husband,

...