AboutVincent M. Wales Expertise I am a writer, specializing in novels (fantasy, science fiction and others) and poetry. While I may be able to answer questions on non-fiction, my specialty is fiction. Please keep that in mind when asking questions.
Experience For four years, I taught a series of fiction writing classes in Sacramento, CA. I've written literally hundreds of essays that are online. My latest novel, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, won BEST FICTION in Fresh Voices 2006, BEST FICTION and BEST YA FICTION in the NCPA Book Awards, and placed as a finalist in BEST BOOKS 2005 (losing to Amy Tan's newest). In 2002, my novel WISH YOU WERE HERE won awards for Best Fantasy and Best Fiction/Drama in the 8th Annual SPA Awards.
Question QUESTION: I would appreciate your help in understanding whether I can use the name of a state school in my novel. For example, would it be illegal to write about a fictitious incident at the University of Alaska or a real junior college? Thanks for your help!
ANSWER: Carol:
No problem doing that at all. Real schools are used all the time in fiction.
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QUESTION: I really appreciate your response to my question. Is there any way possible that you can give me a few examples of authors using real schools in fiction? Any book titles would be great. Once again, thanks for your help!
Answer Well, I recall Philip Roth's protagonist in Goodbye, Columbus had attended Penn State. This sticks out, I think, because that's where I went to school. There are many more, but I'm drawing a blank right now.
I'd like to add a caveat to my previous reply.
While featuring an actual school is perfectly legal, you might want to ask yourself why you need to. If the event you're planning to portray is a bad one (say, a school shooting, or some sort of scandal), you might be better off using a fictional school. This way, you'd be able to do without worrying if people would be upset in any way by it.
If, however, you're just planning to mention a school that a character attends, using a real one can add a layer of realism to your fiction.
