New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks is coming to Glastonbury on Sept. 28 to discuss “The Art of the Historical Novel: Making Fiction from Fact,” according to event organizers.
Jillian Puzzo, manager of independent bookseller River Bend Books, will be the moderator.
The event, which will be held at the Smith Middle School, is free and open to the public. Its sponsor is Glastonbury’s Welles-Turner Memorial Library Second Century Fund, which has a “charitable and educational mission” designed “to help meet the long-term and large-scale needs of the library.”
Ginny Roscoe, president of the Second Century Fund, said in a statement that the event is designed to “expand the exposure of Glastonbury’s library, increase awareness of the Second Century Fund and it’s fund-raising efforts to support the library, enrich our community through literature, and, in this instance, to introduce area readers to one of the most influential historical novelists of our time.”
Roscoe said the Second Century Fund is proud to promote and collaborate with Welles-Turner Memorial Library, which was voted the best library in the Hartford area in the Hartford Courant’s 2025 Best of Hartford readers’ poll.
Geraldine Brooks’ historical novels, include “The Secret Chord,” “March,” “People of the Book,” “Year of Wonders,” “Caleb’s Crossing,” and “Horse.” She is a former Wall Street Journal correspondent for Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East, and her books delve “deeply into history with a journalist’s eye for detail and a master storyteller’s sense of character,” the statement said.
She also is the author of nonfiction works. The latest book, “Memorial Days,” was published this year.
Brooks began her career at The Sydney Morning Herald, and later moved to the United States to attend the journalism master’s program at Columbia University in New York City, the statement said. After working for 11 years as correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, she was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University in fall 2005 and was the recipient of the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the statement said.
The Second Century Fund asks that you pre-register at www.wtml2cf.org/register, or visit the library to register in person. Seating is limited.
The event begins 2 p.m., September 28, 2025 at Smith Middle School 216 Addison Road, Glastonbury. Light refreshments will be provided.
