Interview

Susan Hawthorne is the author/editor of thirty books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Her latest book, Lesbian: Politics, culture, existence (Spinifex Press), interweaves her thinking about these subjects over a fifty-year period. She has worked in Indigenous education and has taught English as a second language to Arabic-speaking women. For fifteen years, she was an aerialist in two women’s circuses. She researched the torture of lesbians on which her novel Dark Matters is based.

David Hallberg was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Ballet, a principal guest artist with The Royal Ballet, and resident guest artist with The Australian Ballet. He is the author of a critically acclaimed memoir, A Body of Work: Dancing to the edge and back (2017). He made history in 2011 when he became the first American to join the Bolshoi Ballet under the title premier dancer. In 2021, David Hallberg became the eighth artistic director of The Australian Ballet. 

Professor George Williams AO is the Vice-Chancellor and President at Western Sydney University. He commenced as Western Sydney University’s fifth Vice-Chancellor in July 2024, bringing decades of experience as a constitutional law scholar and teacher, senior leader in higher education, barrister and as a national thought leader. His latest book with David Hume is People Power: How Australian referendums are lost and won (UNSW Press, 2024).

Robyn Arianrhod is a science writer, and an affiliate of Monash’s School of Mathematics. Her reviews have appeared in Australian Book Review, The Age, Times Higher Education, The Mathematical Intelligencer, Cosmos, and Notices of the American Mathematical Society. Her latest book is Vector: A surprising story of space, time, and mathematical transformation (UNSW Press, 2024).

Andrew Ford is a composer, writer, and broadcaster, and has won awards in all three capacities, including the prestigious Paul Lowin Prize for his song cycle, Learning to Howl. His music has been played throughout Australia and in more than forty countries around the world. Since 1995 he has presented The Music Show each weekend on ABC Radio National. He is the author of eleven books, including The Song Remains the Same: 800 years of love songs, laments and lullabies (with Anni Heino). We review his new book, The Shortest History of Music.

Sebastian Smee, born in 1972 in Adelaide, is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic at The Washington Post. He has written widely about art and is the author of The Art of Rivalry: Four friendships, betrayals, and breakthroughs in modern art and Paris in Ruins: Love, war, and the birth of Impressionism. He lives in Boston.

Angela Hewitt, one of the world’s leading concert pianists, appears in recital and as soloist with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Asia. Her interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters of our time. Her latest Australian tour takes in Adelaide, Melbourne, Bendigo, and Sydney, from 9 to 15 October.

Noni Hazlehurst – actor, presenter, ambassador, director, writer, and broadcaster – has been a presence on our screens and stages since her leading role in The Sullivans in 1976. Notable works include Play School (1978-2002), Monkey Grip (1982), Fran (1985), Better Homes and Gardens (1995-2004), Every Family Has a Secret (2019-24), Nancy Wake (1987), The Shiralee (1987), Curtin (2007), and A Place to Call Home (2013-18). Her theatrical appearances have earned multiple awards and she has received several ARIA nominations for her recordings for children. We review Hazlehurst’s memoir, Dropping the Mask, in the November issue.

Iain McCalman was born in Nyasaland in 1947, and educated in Zimbabwe and Australia. He writes British, European, and Australian histories of popular science, politics, conservation, and literary cultures. His books include The Reef: A passionate history (2013) and Delia Akeley and the Monkey (2022). His new book is John Büsst: Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest (NewSouth, 2024). He is a former President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and was Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Sydney [University] Environment Institute (2011-21). He was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in 2007 for ‘services to history and the humanities’.