Michele Gierck

Non-Fiction Writer

MicheleMichele is a Melbourne based author and freelance writer whose feature articles have been published regularly in Eureka Street magazine since 2001 and also appear in the daily newspapers The Courier Mail (Brisbane), The Age (Melbourne) and The Australian (throughout Australia). She is an experienced public speaker who is booked regularly in Melbourne and Brisbane. 

Fraying

Michele's latest book, Fraying: Mum, memory loss the medical maze and me was published by NewSouth Publishing in March 2015. It chronicles the unexpected journey Michele and her mother embark on as they negotiate memory loss and the medical maze.

Fraying is based on notes from Michele’s journal. Readers will find that, not unlike Michele and her mother, they can never be sure what is going to happen next. This is no tale of woe. It’s insightful, warm, upbeat, and not without humour.

This is the book every ageing woman should give her daughter or her son. Clear-eyed about dementia and dying, it is an essential handbook of spirited care – and love – for our time.
~ MORAG FRASER, Chair, Australian Book Review

700Days700 Days in El Salvador was Michele's first book, published by Coretext in May 2006. This memoir is written with earthiness and humour. It is a personal journey: through life and death, love, longing and belonging and the shattering of innocence. In describing the author's involvement in El Salvador during the 1980s and 90s, it is an insider's account of political struggle, war and its aftermath. The book does not focus on the bombs and massacres but rather the personal human stories about the way people respond to war, their fear, resilience and hope. It also questions just how much we will put on the line for those we love and when it's time to walk away.