Geraldine Brooks: The Art of Historical Fiction

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist. She began her career at the Sydney Morning Herald before moving to the United States to attend the journalism master's program at Columbia University in New York City. She then spent 11 years as correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, where her beats included some of the world's most troubled areas, including Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East. Her fiction debut, Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague, was published in ten countries and was a 2001 Notable Book of the Year for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. For her second novel, March, Brooks was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her third book, People of the Book, became an instant New York Times bestseller. Her most recent novel is Caleb's Crossing. She is also the author of two acclaimed works of nonfiction, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, and Foreign Correspondence: A Penpal's Journey from Down Under to All Over.