In conversation with Rick Morton

Listen to this ANU/Canberra Times Meet the Author conversation on Experience ANU SoundCloud channel

Rick Morton, journalist and author of the acclaimed bestselling memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt, will be in conversation with Alex Sloan on Rick's new book, My Year of Living Vulnerably, a powerful, moving and highly personal book, charting his rediscovery of love.

In early 2019, Rick was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder - which, as he says, is just a fancy way of saying that one of the people who should have loved him the most during childhood didn't.

So, over the course of twelve months, he went on a journey to rediscover love. To get better. Not cured, not fixed. Just, better. This is a book about his journey to betterness, his year of living vulnerably. In fact, it's a book about love. What love is, how we see it, what forms it takes, how we practice it in our lives, what it means to us, and how we really, really can't live without it, even if, like Rick for many years, we think we can.

A dazzling and wide-ranging book about love, trauma and recovery, My Year of Living Vulnerably covers many of the big issues of human existence: love, beauty, death, emotions, loneliness, the importance of touch, religion, evolution, science, engagement with the animal kingdom, the brain, the self - it is an extraordinary achievement.

'Wonderfully readable and wide-ranging exploration of the visible and invisible touchstones of our lives...this is nourishing reading for our lonely, frightening and fraught times. Part self-help book, part treatise on the importance of love, kindness and forgiveness...Morton is a national treasure and we need more like him' Books+Publishing

Rick Morton has been a journalist and writer for over 14 years. He is the winner of the 2013 Kennedy Award for Young Journalist of the Year and the 2017 Kennedy Award for Outstanding Columnist. In 2019, Rick left The Australian, where he worked as the social affairs writer with a particular focus on social policy, and is now a Senior Reporter for the Saturday Paper. Rick regularly appears on television, radio and panels across both the ABC and commercial networks discussing politics, the media, writing and social policy.

Alex Sloan AM, the 2017 Canberra Citizen of the Year, is a regular conversationalist for ANU Meet the Author events.

Hugh Mackay AO, social researcher and bestselling author will deliver the vote of thanks.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, registration for this event is essential and social distancing must be adhered to.

This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop and books will be available for purchase on the evening in the Cultural Centre foyer. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm, and available again after the event until 7.30pm.