WHAT'S ON @ FOBL

We do hope you will come along to our first event of the year, on the evening of Friday 20^th March, when young author Michelle Balogh will talk about her research and writing process in telling the story of her great, great step-grandmother, Shan-Yi.

In her mid-twenties, rudderless and unsure, Michelle Balogh moved into her great-grandmother Shan-Yi’s Sydney apartment just after her passing. Shan-Yi had been part of Michelle’s family since long before she was born and staying at the glamorous art deco apartment was meant to help Michelle back on her feet.

Moving in meant far more than building a new life. In the apartment, Michelle found an extraordinary trove of letters, diaries and papers that told of her great-grandmother’s unique life – one of adventure and heartache, transatlantic travel and suspected espionage.

Michelle’s book, Her Kind of Luck, a work of imaginative biography and memoir, is subtitled A violin prodigy. A Guinness-World-Record Holder. A suspected spy. A grandmother ... so you can see that Michelle had an intriguing subject to write about. Meticulously researched and told with great heart, this is the story of Shan-Yi’s unparalleled life and the inspiration it afforded Michelle – exactly when she needed it the most.

Michelle Balogh is a freelance writer, illustrator and author. Her work has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Aspiring Writers’ Mentorship and the Scribe Non-Fiction Prize. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Music from UNSW, and in 2014 completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at UTS. Following graduation, she pursued a brief career in beauty and lifestyle writing before discovering that the stories she wanted to tell were closer to home.

Hill of Content will be selling signed copies of Her Kind of Luck at member’s discount price at the event.