AustLit

'Christine Kenneally is a journalist. After completing a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics in Melbourne, Kenneally pursued a PhD at the Universiš of Cambridge, and subsequently moved to the United States and turned to journalism. While living in New York, she produced pieces for the New York Times, New Scientist, Slate, and Time. Her account of the Black Saturday bushfires, wri€en for thŠe New Yorker, was collected in ŠBest Australian Essays 2010. Since moving back to Melbourne she has published in Šthe Monthly, and now holds the title of contributing editor at BuzzFeed News. In 2007 she published her first book, ŠThe First Word, an account of developments in the field of linguistics that have lead to recent research on the origins of language. Her second book, ŠThe Invisible History of the Human Race, was published in 2014, and offers what might be thought of as an introduction to modern studies of inheritance, in which Kenneally describes how innovations in genetic research have expanded popular and personal understandings of ‘what gets passed down’. It was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Kenneally’s prose is uncommonly lucid both in its unpacking of thorny scientific concepts, as well as in its account of the significance of these concepts to our culture at large. Thickly larded with anecdote—both personal and historical—her writing offers an exemplary union of science and storytelling. This interview took place at Ms. Kenneally’s studio in Melbourne.' (Introduction)