What’s in a Genre?

Some of my favorite fiction authors are unapologetically genre-defying. It isn’t necessarily why I like them, but I appreciate that they didn’t allow or aren’t allowing themselves to be confined to one category.

Georgette Heyer wrote historically accurate Regency novels before Regency novels were a thing, along with a dozen clever contemporary mysteries. Ann Bridge entertained with her Julia Probyn series of spy intrigues, but also wrote poignant novels. Robin McKinley genre-jumped to fantasy-ho...