Margaret Simons

Margaret Simons is an award-winning freelance journalist and the author of thirteen books and numerous articles and essays.

Simons co-wrote the biography of former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser. She also wrote an unauthorised biography of mass media proprietor Kerry Stokes (chairman of the Seven Network) and a biography of Penny Wong.

Simons is also a novelist and a gardening writer. As well as writing books Simons is a freelance investigative journalist and feature writer. Her long-form journalism has been published in The Monthly, Inside Story and The Age. Simons has written extensively about the media for numerous publications.

Simons was the retained media commentator for Crikey from 2005 to 2014. She has also written a book on the Australian media called The Content Makers: Understanding the Future of the Australian Media, which was published by Penguin in September 2007. Simons wrote Journalism at the Crossroads, which was published in print by Scribe in 2012. Simons’ other work includes her prize-winning 2003 book The Meeting of the Waters, which examined the Hindmarsh Island bridge affair.

From 2012-2017 she was director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism and the coordinator of the innovative Master of Journalism degree at the University of Melbourne. Before joining the University of Melbourne, Simons was convenor of Journalism at Swinburne University of Technology.

Simons is a board member of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, which conducts research and advocacy on media issues. She is also the Chair of Angeles Relief Inc a charity established to help the children she wrote about in her Philippines journalism.

Friday 8 May 6.30pm CRY ME A RIVER

Saturday 9 May 2pm ON TRUST