In conversation with Geraldine Brooks AO (BA 1979)

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

Join Pulitzer Prize winner and alumni Geraldine Brooks AO (BA 1979) streaming live from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as she discusses her novel Horse with Dr Wendy Were. 

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, attending Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues, and later for the National Times. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her novels People of the Book, Caleb’s Crossing and The Secret Chord were all New York Times Bestsellers. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, is an international bestseller and has been translated into over 25 languages. She also authored the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence and The Idea of Home, the 2011 Boyer Lectures. She was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies in 2006 and returned to Harvard as a visiting lecturer in 2021. Next year, she will be a visiting fellow at New College, Oxford. 

Dr Wendy Were is a cultural and creative leader who specialises in strategy and transformation. Her former roles include seven years as Executive Director, Advocacy and Development at the Australia Council for the Arts; Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sydney Writers' Festival, Business Advisor at the Creative Industries Innovation Centre; and CEO of West Australian Music. After working in city shaping as Executive Director of Thought Leadership and Engagement at the Greater Cities Commission, she joined the University of Sydney in March 2023 as Director of Engagement, University Infrastructure. Wendy holds a PhD in Literature awarded with Distinction and is a Board Director of Monkey Baa Theatre Company. 

Location: The Quad Refectory

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