Geraldine Brooks Geraldine Brooks i(A14763 works by)
Born: Established: ca. 1956 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
Expatriate assertion
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BiographyHistory

Growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, Geraldine Brooks established pen pals across the world (an experience that contributed to her memoir Foreign Correspondence). Following her secondary education in a Roman Catholic school Brooks graduated from the University of Sydney and then worked for the Sydney Morning Herald. After completing a Master's Degree in journalism at Columbia University, USA, in 1983, Brooks became a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal reporting on events in the Middle East, Somalia and Bosnia.

Among her awards Brooks has received a Korn Ferry Award (1994), a Columbia University Distinguished Alumni Award (1993) and an Overseas Press Club award (1990). From 1996-1998 she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. In addition to her work with the Wall Street Journal, Brooks has contributed to several major USA publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post and Harper's Bazaar.

Brooks divides her time between homes in Sydney, Australia and Virginia, USA. Following a change in Australian law in 2002 Brooks took up dual Australian-USA citizenship.

On 30 May 2011 it was announced that Brooks would present the 52nd Boyer Lectures, entitled 'At Home in the World', in November 2011.

She is the sister of Darleen Bungey, who in 2020 released a biography about their father, American big-band singer Lawrence (or Lawrie) Brooks.

Exhibitions

17022329
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Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Some slavic languages transliterate this author's name as Džeraldina Bruks.
  • Modern Greek transliterates this author's name as Μπρουκς, Τζεραλντιν.

  • Voted number 36 in the Booktopia Top 50 Favourite Australian Authors for 2018

Personal Awards

2016 recipient Order of Australia — Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) — for distinguished service to literature and as an advocate for improved indigenous literacy
2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize — Lifetime Achievement
2009 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award
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Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Horse : A Novel Melbourne : Viking , 2022 24015444 2022 single work novel historical fiction

'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

'Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. 

'New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

'Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

'Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.' (Publication summary) 
2023 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — Fiction Book Award
2023 shortlisted Booksellers Choice Award BookPeople Book of the Year — Adult Fiction Book of the Year
2023 winner Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
2023 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards — Best Designed Literary Fiction / Poetry Cover designed by Sandy Cull.
2023 winner Indie Awards — Fiction
2022 shortlisted Dymocks Book of the Year — Book of the Year
2022 shortlisted HNSA Historical Novel Prize — Adult
y separately published work icon The Secret Chord Sydney : Hachette Australia , 2015 8702568 2015 single work novel

'With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times bestselling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature’s richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.

'The Secret Chord provides new context for some of the best-known episodes of David’s life while also focusing on others, even more remarkable and emotionally intense, that have been neglected. We see David through the eyes of those who love him or fear him—from the prophet Natan, voice of his conscience, to his wives Mikal, Avigail, and Batsheva, and finally to Solomon, the late-born son who redeems his Lear-like old age. Brooks has an uncanny ability to hear and transform characters from history, and this beautifully written, unvarnished saga of faith, desire, family, ambition, betrayal, and power will enthrall her many fans.' (Publication summary)
2016 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
2016 shortlisted Indie Awards — Fiction
2016 longlisted Women's Prize Trust Awards — Women's Prize for Fiction (UK)
2016 shortlisted Australian Booksellers Association Awards — BookPeople Book of the Year
2017 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
y separately published work icon Caleb's Crossing : A Novel Pymble : HarperCollins Australia , 2011 Z1753531 2011 single work novel historical fiction

'In 1665, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Here, Pulitzer Prize winner Brooks imagines that Caleb was befriended by Bethia Mayfield, whose minister father wants to convert the neighboring Wampanoag and makes educating Caleb one of his goals. Bethia, herself desperate for book learning, ends up as an indentured servant in Cambridge, watching Caleb bridge two cultures.'

Source: Readings website, www.readings.com.au
Sighted: 10/01/2011
2011 shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Fiction
2012 shortlisted Australian Booksellers Association Awards — BookPeople Book of the Year
2012 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Book of the Year
2012 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
2012 shortlisted Indie Awards — Fiction
2011 shortlisted Queensland Premier's Literary Awards — Best Fiction Book
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Last amended 7 May 2020 08:25:59
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