Many readers will know leading Australian author Hannah Kent from Burial Rites, her haunting historical novel about a young woman accused of murder in 19th-century Iceland.

Yet the novel’s trajectory – and indeed Hannah’s path to becoming one of Australia’s leading literary novelists – all stemmed from a chance exchange year she took in Iceland at the age of 17, an experience that would indelibly shape her as a writer and a person.

In her luminous memoir Always Home, Always Homesick she revisits this transformative year, tracks her ever-evolving relationship with Iceland, and reflects on the pleasures and pains of navigating a life and identity split between two very different places.

Chaired by Kim Hill.