Event Topic: Life, Death & Wellbeing

Leon Piterman AM is a Professor of General Practice at Monash University and is one of the world’s leading GP educators. He has published widely on clinical and educational issues related to general practice with a particular interest in mental health and chronic disease. His first book “There is a lot of it going around” — A GP’s Odyssey was published in 2019.

In his book chat, Leon discusses Living in COVID Times, an exploration of Australia’s COVID-19 experience through a variety of lenses — from the political and economic components of the pandemic, to its effects on our shared social and religious practices — and explores what he considers might be involved in the final shift toward ‘Covid normal’.

Leah Kaminsky is a physician and award-winning writer. Her debut novel, The Waiting Room, won the Voss Literary Prize. The Hollow Bones won both the Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction categories of the 2019 International Book Awards, and the 2019 American Book Fest’s Best Book Award for Literary Fiction. She is the author of ten books and holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Meg Keneally has worked as a public affairs officer, sub-editor, freelance feature writer, reporter and talkback radio producer. She is co-author with her father Tom Keneally of The Monsarrat Series of historical crime novels. Fled, Meg’s first solo novel, was published in 2019. Her most recent novel is The Wreck.

In their book chat, Leah and Meg discuss what inspired them to undertake the creation of Animals Make Us Human, a book about the connections of humans with animals in the natural world — and the process of selecting and working with the incredible authors that contributed to the anthology.

Proceeds of their book Animals Makes Us Human go to the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Australian Wildlife Conservancy.