Joining us online from Australia is award-winning author and historian, Dr Gillian Polack.
Bio: Dr Gillian Polack is an award-winning Australian speculative fiction writer based in Canberra. Her novels are mostly contemporary fantasy, with some science fiction and historical detours. Her most recent novel is The Green Children Help Out. Her 2019 novel, The Year of the Fruit Cake, won the 2020 Ditmar award. She was the 2020 recipient of the A. Bertram Chandler award for lifetime achievement in science fiction.
She is an ethnohistorian with a special interest in how story transmits culture, both Medieval and modern. Food history, the chansons de geste, and the nature of heroes are, of course, all part of this. Her current research examines how contemporary speculative fiction novels serve as vectors for cultural transmission. Her most recent book on this subject is Story Matrices: Cultural Encoding and Cultural Baggage in the Worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her first PhD was in Medieval History and her second in Creative Writing (science fiction).
She is an Ambassador for Australia Reads and an advisor for Accessible Arts, Australia. Of her fourteen published books, eight were award finalists or winners.
Pronouns: She/Her & They/Them
Find her at
- Website: https://gillianpolack.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GillianPolack
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gillian.polack
Read her books
