Lunch Hour Talks
LUNCH HOUR TALK 16 OCTOBER 2025
Thursday 16 October 2025
Speaker: Natalie Conyer
Topic: Crime Fiction: Why and How
When Natalie Conyer wanted to explore some deep ideas about her birth country, South Africa, she chose to do this by writing crime fiction. Why? What can crime fiction, often regarded as inferior to ‘literary fiction’, offer the reader? In this talk, Natalie considers the ability of crime fiction to examine ourselves and the world around us and relates her own journey to writing the form.
Natalie Conyer’s first book, Present Tense, won the 2020 Ned Kelly Award for best debut fiction. It was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards and voted one of 2020’s best reads of the year by The Australian. Her second book, Shadow City, was released in September 2024. A collection of her award-winning short stories, The Book Club and Other Stories, was published by Clan Destine Press in the same year. Present Tense was re-published in December 2024, and a third book is on the way.
Where – The meeting room at the Customs House Library, at Circular Quay. 31 Alfred St – at Circular Quay, opposite the station. Take the lift (back LH corner of the foyer) to the second floor.
When – The talk will begin at 12.15, The room is open from 11.30 for tea/coffee/sandwiches.
Entry – $20 JSNWL members $25 non-members
PLEASE BOOK BY NOON Monday 13 October 2025
Phone the library on (02) 9571 5359 or email .au
Lunch Hour Talk 21 August 2025
Thursday 21 August 2025
Speaker: Sarah Gilbert
Topic: Unconventional Women: The story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia
Sarah Gilbert is the author of Unconventional Women: the story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia (MUP, 2024), a work of oral history. She will talk about how the book came about, the process of making it, as well as the story it tells.
Sarah Gilbert is a writer, producer and oral historian from Sydney. She began her career as a copy girl at News Ltd before moving to New York where she worked as a feature writer at the New York Post. She returned home to work as a reporter in current affairs television but soon moved to Argentina where she wrote for Lonely Planet and Time Out. She works as a writer/producer across documentary film, television and podcasting, with a particular focus on Australian history.
Sarah’s writing has been published in the Sydney Review of Books, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Wall Street Journal and Marie Claire, and her television work has appeared on the ABC, SBS, the History Channel and the Smithsonian Channel.
Sarah currently runs Impact Studios, a podcast production house at UTS, and she is the books columnist at Galah magazine. She lives in Darlinghurst with her husband and their two children.
Where – The meeting room at the Customs House Library, at Circular Quay. 31 Alfred St – at Circular Quay, opposite the station. Take the lift (back LH corner of the foyer) to the second floor.
When – The talk will begin at 12.15, The room is open from 11.30 for tea/coffee/sandwiches.
Entry – $20 JSNWL members $25 non-members
PLEASE BOOK BY NOON Monday 18 August 2025
Phone the library on (02) 9571 5359 or email .au
