Pulitzer-Prize Winner Geraldine Brooks Gives Lecture

STORIES about the connection between historical events and the human imagination’s shaping of them into works of fiction held the Williams Center for the Arts capacity crowd spellbound.

As if creating a novel’s narrative in the moment, Geraldine Brooks told tales of people past and present that had captured her interest and led to research and exploration that is essential to the art of writing historical fiction.

Brooks gave the 2013 John L. Hatfield ’67 Lecture March 14 and met with students, faculty, and administrators including Libby Lucy ’15, film and media studies major (right). Her visit was hosted by Friends of Skillman Library.

Brooks’ fiction debut, Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague, was named a 2001 Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. Her second novel, March, received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. People of the Book became an instant New York Times bestseller.

She was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 11 years, where her beats included Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East.