GERALDINE BROOKS, AO
Author
Geraldine Brooks wishes she was heading for a "barbie" at her sister's place in Sydney, but she will spend   January 26 at home in wintry Massachusetts, and giving the Australia Day address at the American Australian Society in Boston. 
Sydney-born Brooks is appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her service to literature as an author, an advocate for improved Indigenous literacy, a role model for young writers, and a journalist. After beginning her career at The Sydney Morning Herald, Brooks won a fellowship to study in New York. Her award-winning journalism took her to the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.
She has published non-fiction books and bestselling historical novels.
Her 2006 novel   March won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
Brooks has been an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, taught creative writing and mentored writers.
"I tell them to be adventurous and unafraid ... the beauty of a writing life is there's no one way into it."