Sydney Writers' Festival - Eric Puchner
Posted on: October 9th, 2025
Categories: Free Event, Adults
Watch the livestream of Eric Puchner talking about Dream State streaming direct from the Sydney Writers’ Festival at Bowral Library!
A love triangle. A family saga spanning 50 years. A story about the magnetic pull of friendship.
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her in-laws' beautiful lake house to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a cardiac anaesthesiologist with a brilliant future.
When Charlie asks his best friend Garrett to officiate the ceremony, Cece can't imagine anyone less appropriate for the task. After all, Garrett doesn't believe in marriage. But as she spends time with him and his gruff mask slips, she grows increasingly uncertain about her future, leading to an impulsive decision that will alter the three friends' lives forever – the events of that summer reverberating across 50 years and spanning generations.
Join Eric Puchner to explore his reinvention of the great American novel, Dream State, a tender ode to the enduring beauty of friendship. In conversation with Cassie McCullagh.
Eric Puchner:
Eric Puchner is the author of the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of a California Book Award, and two collections of short stories. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Baltimore with his family.
Cassie McCullagh:
Cassie McCullagh co-hosts The Bookshelf with Kate Evans on ABC Radio National, a weekly review of the latest Australian and international fiction, and presents RN’s The Weekend. Cassie has also presented ABC Sydney’s Focus program, and RN’s flagship social affairs program Life Matters, and reported on books, arts and popular culture. Prior to joining the ABC, Cassie worked in print journalism as a feature writer, news reporter and columnist.
Place: Henrietta Rose Room, Bowral Library
Date: Thursday 9 October
Time: 6PM
Bookings: are essential and can be made here. This is a free event.