Upcoming Guest Speaker

Kathryn Heyman is an Australian writer of eight novels and many plays, including Storm and Grace, and Fury, a memoir  published by Allen and Unwin in February 2017 and 2021. She has won numerous awards including an Arts Council of England Writers Award, the Wingate and the Southern Arts Awards, and been nominated for the Orange Prize, the Scottish Writer of the Year Award, the Edinburgh Fringe Critics’ Awards, the Kibble Prize, and the West Australian Premier’s Book Awards. Her radio plays for BBC Radio include adaptations of her own work. Her most recent work is Circle of Wonders.

​

Circle of Wonders is the story of two women about to die. The story deals with a dysfunctional family struggling to put aside their hurts and do the right by one another. It is about rage, vulnerability, forgiveness and a search for solace.
Circle of Wonders is a book that offers guidance and new models for living and dying. The charismatic, vivacious Roni, who is the central character, battles cancer, and is journeying towards death. She wonders, ‘How can I die well when I haven’t lived well’? Roni is determined her last days will be filled with colour, joy and meaning.

She begins writing a Book of Wonders to ease her family’s grief when she passes. She will stage a living wake.
In Circle of Wonders, the author is committed to honouring women and their complex relationships, and how to let love in, and how to let love go.