Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 27 November
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
In a society seemingly obsessed with (and overcome by) stories, where should we look for truth? Is ‘emotional truth’ a valuable tool and vehicle for reflection, or is it a foolhardy conceit? What does literature offer a world abundant with decadence and despair?
Geraldine Brooks is perfectly placed to consider these questions. Across two decades, the exceptionally accomplished writer has crafted a distinguished career as a foreign correspondent as well as a bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction, winning awards for all three – including the Pulitzer Prize for her novel March. Her far-reaching work has reached topics including rebellion, desire, geopolitics and distant history, augmented by her personal commitment to environmentalism and conversion to Judaism.
Brooks will investigate reality and imagination with a fellow traveller – highly respected journalist, filmmaker and veteran ABC broadcaster Mark Colvin, whose foreign reporting work includes the American hostage crisis in Tehran, the Cambodian peace process and the Ethiopian famine.
Tickets to this event are available at the door. Arrive at least twenty minutes prior to the event to purchase.
Note to early bookers: if you booked tickets to this event prior to Thursday 19 November, some details may have changed. Please check theinterrobang.wheelercentre.com/#important-info for details.
Featuring
Geraldine Brooks
Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in Sydney's western suburbs. She worked for the Sydney Morning Herald and in 1982 she won the Greg Shackleton scholarship to the journalism master's program at Columbia University. Later she worked for the Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.
In 2006 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel March. Her novels Caleb's Crossing, People of the Book and The Secret Chord were New York Times bestsellers, and Year of Wonders is an international bestseller, translated into more than 25 languages. She is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence.
In 2011 she presented Australia's prestigious Boyer Lectures, later published as The Idea of Home. In 2016 she was appointed Officer in the Order of Australia for her services to literature. Geraldine Brooks divides her time between Sydney and Massachusetts and has two sons.
View Profile
Mark Colvin
Mark Colvin is an Australian journalist, filmmaker and broadcaster. He has been the presenter of PM, one of the flagship Australian radio current affairs programs on the ABC Radio network, since 1997.
As a foreign correspondent, Mark covered such major stories as the American hostage crisis in Tehran, the events right across the continent as the Cold War began to thaw and the Gorbachev era. As a reporter for Four Corners, Mark made films on the French massacre of Kanaks in New Caledonia, the extinction of Australia's fauna, and the Cambodian peace process. His film on the Ethiopian famine won a Gold Medal at the New York Film Festival and was runner-up for an International Emmy Award.