Tuesday 20 May 2025
8.15-9.15pm
Event Code: 17
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Charlotte Wood: A Writing Life
Charlotte Wood: A Writing Life
Australia’s first Booker Prize–shortlisted writer in a decade considers legacy
“I wanted nothing trivial, nothing insincere in this book.” – Charlotte Wood
Literary luminary Charlotte Wood has firmly cemented herself as an important voice in contemporary fiction in Australia and abroad, mastering local storytelling with global resonance.
Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker-prize, judges praised Charlotte’s ability to chill and thrill with her latest novel Stone Yard Devotional, a book they could not wait to put into the hands of readers. Its brilliance quiet and sharp, the book follows a woman escaping burn out, unexpectedly settling into a monastery in rural New South Wales. Amongst prayer and mouse plague, she discovers that no shelter is impermeable when the past comes knocking.
Charlotte is the first Australian since 2014 to be shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, the year when Richard Flanagan’s Narrow Road to the Deep North took home the top prize.
At home, Charlotte has a devoted readership. Her career spans three decades, seven novels and three works of non-fiction, including acclaimed novels The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. Her name is a fixture of prestigious literary award lists. She has won the Stella Prize, Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, and Indie Book Award, and been shortlisted multiple times for the Miles Franklin Award.
Hear Charlotte discuss Stone Yard Devotional, reflect on her craft, and celebrate her career, in conversation with Ailsa Piper.
Literary luminary Charlotte Wood has firmly cemented herself as an important voice in contemporary fiction in Australia and abroad, mastering local storytelling with global resonance.
Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker-prize, judges praised Charlotte’s ability to chill and thrill with her latest novel Stone Yard Devotional, a book they could not wait to put into the hands of readers. Its brilliance quiet and sharp, the book follows a woman escaping burn out, unexpectedly settling into a monastery in rural New South Wales. Amongst prayer and mouse plague, she discovers that no shelter is impermeable when the past comes knocking.
Charlotte is the first Australian since 2014 to be shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, the year when Richard Flanagan’s Narrow Road to the Deep North took home the top prize.
At home, Charlotte has a devoted readership. Her career spans three decades, seven novels and three works of non-fiction, including acclaimed novels The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend. Her name is a fixture of prestigious literary award lists. She has won the Stella Prize, Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, and Indie Book Award, and been shortlisted multiple times for the Miles Franklin Award.
Hear Charlotte discuss Stone Yard Devotional, reflect on her craft, and celebrate her career, in conversation with Ailsa Piper.
“A fierce and philosophical interrogation of history, memory, nature, and human existence.”
“A book about what it means to be good: simply and with great humility, it asks the big questions, leaving the reader feeling kinder, more brave, enlarged.”
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