Biographers in Conversation

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, award-winning biographer Dr Bernadette Brennan chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears, a literary biography that explores the rich, tumultuous life of Gillian Mears, one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the acclaimed author and art historian Dr Helen Ennis chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Max Dupain: A Portrait, the first biography of the photographer Max Dupain, Australia’s most influential photographer of the 20th century.  

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with multi-award-winning author Anna Funder about her choices while crafting Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life. Wifedom resurrects Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a brilliant Oxford graduate who married George Orwell in 1936.  

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Jacqueline Kent chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life, the biography of Australia’s doyenne of publishing.

.Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 

• Jacqueline Kent’s inspiration for writing a second edition of A Certain Style after her first edition won the National Biograph...

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation Ashleigh Wilson chats with Gabriella about his book: A Year with Wendy Whiteley: Conversations About Art, Life and Gardening.

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• Ashleigh Wilson shares his inspiration for writing A Year with Wendy Whiteley: Conversations About Art, Life and Gardening and why he ref...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Christie Lowrance chats with Gabriella about her strategy for writing Nature’s Ambassador: The Legacy of Thornton W. Burgess, the children’s author and naturalist. Christie’s book is the first complete biography of Thornton W. Burgess, the preeminent 20th century naturalist, wildlife advocate, children’s author and pioneer in environmental education and radio programming. 

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Laurie Gwen Shapiro chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica, the true story of Billy Gawronski, a New York teenager who stowed away on a ship bound for Antarctica in 1928.

• Laurie Gwen Shapiro shares with us her inspirati...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Melanie Nolan about her book, The ADB’s Story, the history of the Australian Dictionary of Biography she co-edited with Christine Fernon. Melanie is the general editor of ADB, which is widely recognised as an Australian cultural institution and national treasure. She is also Director of Australia’s National Centre of Biography.

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In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Melinda Ponder shares with Gabriella her choices while writing the biography of the 19th century American poet, writer, teacher and social activist, Katherine Lee Bates.

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• Why Melinda Ponder chose the title From Sea to Shining Sea
• How Melinda represented the historical and cultura...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Judith Brett, the acclaimed political historian, chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. This biography of Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second Prime Minister, won the 2018 National Biography Award. 

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• Judith Brett shares with us why she titled her biography The Eni...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joshua Kendall chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing The Man Who Made Lists, his biography of Peter Mark Roget, the eighteenth-century polymath who created the legendary Roget’s Thesaurus. 

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: 

• Why Joshua felt compelled to write The Man Who Made Lists. 
• The me...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ryan Cropp shares with Gabriella the multiplicity of choices he made while writing Donald Horne. A Life in the Lucky Country, the biography of Donald Horne, a prominent and outspoken Australian journalist, writer, public intellectual and social critic.

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• Why Ryan Cropp felt compelled to write a biography of D...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Marcia Biederman shares with Gabriella the choices she made while writing The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill, Abortion, Death and Concealment in Victorian New England.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Marcia Biederman felt compelled to write The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill
• The book’s relevance today, more...