Navigating Dual Careers: From Copywriting to Fiction Writing

When Bonnie Garmus tried to sell her first novel, it was rejected 98 times. Then at 66, she wrote a novel called Lessons in Chemistry, which sold four million copies around the world.

Bonnie Garmus had wanted to be a novelist since she was five years old.

Decades later, she was a copywriter, an open-water swimmer and a rower when she tried to sell her first novel.

After many rejections, she realised it would never be published.

One day Bonnie was at work when a male colleague took credit for one of her ideas. In a moment of anger, she then started writing a novel which would become Lessons in Chemistry.

Set in the 1950s and early '60s, it tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, a chemist and mother who hosts a cooking show that ends up teaching women about a lot more than food.

Bonnie was 66 years old when it was published.

The book has resonated with millions of readers around the world and inspired men and women to change their own lives.

Further information

Lessons in Chemistry is published by Penguin

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.