Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson is a writer who embraces risk. ‘There is no discovery without risk, and what you risk reveals what you value,’ she has said. Winterson’s commitment to experimentation – and her willingness to challenge her readers and herself – have remained constants in an extraordinary career of more than 30 years.

 Her semi-autobiographical debut novel, Oranges Are not the Only Fruit, explored themes of religious fundamentalism and sexuality, and was praised as a work of startling originality. Winterson’s subsequent books have revisited these themes and explored many others, from gender to quantum physics. A recurring feature of Winterson’s work is a preoccupation with myth, archetype and the creative re-telling of old stories. True to form, her latest book, is a contemporary ‘cover version’ of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.   

Winterson returns to Melbourne to discuss that book, The Gap of Time, as well as her career in writing to date. Join us at the Athenaeum Theatre for an examination of the risks and rewards of storytelling from one of the world’s most ambitious, inventive writers.