Geraldine Brooks

Infobox Writer
name = Geraldine Brooks


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birthdate = 1955
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occupation = Journalist, writer
nationality = Australian-American
period =
genre = Historical fiction
subject =
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website =

Geraldine Brooks (born 1955) is an Australian-American journalist and author. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for "March".

Early life and career

Brooks was born in October 1955 and grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. She attended the all-girls' Bethlehem College in Sydney, and then Sydney University. She later worked as a reporter for "The Sydney Morning Herald". As the Greg Shackleton Memorial Scholar she completed a Master's Degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York City in 1983. Subsequently Brooks worked for "The Wall Street Journal", where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans — in 1990, for coverage of the Persian Gulf, Brooks (with Tony Horwitz) received the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for "Best newspaper or wire service reporting from abroad". [cite web|url=http://www.opcofamerica.org/opc_awards/archive/awards_1990.php
accessdate=2006-12-21 |title=OPC Awards: 1990 Award Winners |publisher=Overseas Press Club of America]

Brooks was awarded a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University for 2006.

Brooks married fellow Pulitzer recipient, Tony Horwitz, in Tourette-sur-loup, France, in 1984. She also converted to Judaism, which is the religion of Tony Horwitz. [ [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/34450/format/html/displaystory.html j. - The wandering Haggadah ] ] They have a son, Nathaniel, and divide their time between homes in Martha's Vineyard, United States and Sydney, Australia.

Works

Her first book, "Nine Parts of Desire" (1994), based on her experiences among the Muslim women of the Middle East, was an international bestseller, translated into 17 languages. "Foreign Correspondence" (1997), which won the Nita Kibble Literary Award for women's writing, was a memoir and travel adventure about a childhood enriched by penpals from around the world, and her adult quest to find them.

Her first novel, "Year of Wonders", published in 2001, is an international bestseller. Set in 1666, "Year Of Wonders" follows a young woman's battle to save her fellow villagers and her soul when the plague suddenly strikes the small Derbyshire village of Eyam.

Her second novel, "March", was published in late February 2005. An historical novel set during the American Civil War, it chronicles the war experiences of the March girls' absent father in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women". The parallel novel was generally well received by the critics. In December 2005 "March" was selected by the Washington Post as one of the five best fiction works published during the year. In April 2006, the book earned Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. [cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/2006/2006.html |accessdate=2006-12-21
title=The Pulitzer Prizes — 2006 Winners |publisher=The Pulitzer Board]

"March" seems to have had its roots in Brooks' childhood. A copy of "Little Women" was given to Brooks when she was only ten years old, by her mother Gloria, a journalist and radio announcer.

"People of the Book", published in January 2008, is a fictionalised account of the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah.

Awards and nominations

*2006: The Pulitzer Prize for "March"
*2008: The Australian Publishers Association's Literary Fiction Book of the Year for "People of the Book" [ [http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/brooks-wins-book-of-the-year-award/2008/06/15/1213468236048.html "Brooks wins Book of the Year award", "The Sydney Morning Herald", 2008-06-15] ]

Bibliography

*cite book
title=
publisher=Doubleday|year=1994
id=ISBN 0385475764

*cite book
title=Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey From Down Under to All Over
publisher=Doubleday |year=1997
id=ISBN 0385482698

*cite book
title=Year of Wonders
publisher=Viking|year=2001
id=ISBN 067091021X

*cite book
title=March
publisher=Viking |year=2005
id=ISBN 0670033359

*cite book
title=People of the Book
publisher=Fourth Estate |year=2008
id=ISBN 0007177437

References

External links

* [http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/ Geraldine Brooks official website]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2201563.htm Interview with Ramona Koval on The Book Show, ABC Radio National, on her novel "People of the Book"]
* [http://loadedquestions.blogspot.com/2008/04/loaded-questions-interview-with.html Interview between Geraldine Brooks and Kelly Hewitt] in which the author discusses her new novel "People of the Book", winning the Pulitzer Prize, and her work as a journalist.
* [http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/archives/2005/a-review-of-geraldine-brooks-nine-parts-of-desire-the-hidden-world-of-islamic-women A Muslim woman reviews 'Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women']
* [http://www.jannah.org/sisters/nineres.html A Muslim Response to: Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4527755 Geraldine Brooks' Civil War 'March'] , NPR
* [http://www.bookpage.com/0503bp/geraldine_brooks.html Book Page Interview by Trisha Ping, "An Idealist at War", 2005]
* [http://www.kwls.org/lit/kwls_blog/2008/07/scaffolding_for_the_imaginatio.cfm 2008 interview on Littoral, the blog of the Key West Literary Seminar]

Persondata
NAME=Brooks, Geraldine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning, Australian-American journalist and author.
DATE OF BIRTH=1955
PLACE OF BIRTH=Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=