Reading Groups

In Short: Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock with Amanda Lehr

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Thursday, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT August 13, 2026

The Center for Fiction

Registration includes a complimentary drink from our Café & Bar. The ‘With Books’ option includes the title required for this group at a 10% discount from our Bookstore.

On St. Valentine’s Day in 1900, the students of Appleyard College for Young Ladies set out for a picnic at Hanging Rock. Nineteen girls went into the bush. Three never came back. Inspired by a dream and drafted in less than two weeks, Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock has become a landmark of Australian literature, film (thanks to Peter Weir’s 1975 adaptation), and folklore due to its notorious question of being fact or fiction.

Join us for an exploration of the novel’s liminal spaces between girlhood and mature desire, Victorian order and untamed wilderness, truth and fabrication. Why is the mystery at the heart of Hanging Rock so unsettling? What happens in its excised final chapter, published only after Lindsey’s death? And how do the novel’s lost girls fit into a larger cultural canon—from The Virgin Suicides to Twin Peaks—obsessed with female absence?

Reading List:

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

What to expect from this reading group: Participants can expect a conversational, good-humored atmosphere that embraces complexity. Dr. Lehr will provide context for the works on the syllabus and provide support for close-reading, but we’ll be cultivating a seminar-style space where all participants are encouraged to bring their own observations and questions to enrich our discussion.

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read Picnic at Hanging Rock in its entirety before we meet. A supplemental reading, “The Secret of Hanging Rock,” will be emailed upon registration.

We offer a limited number of need-based scholarships for our Reading Groups and Writing Workshops, covering 50% of tuition. Applicants selected for scholarships will be notified one week prior to the first meeting. To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form.

Pricing inclusive of sales tax if applicable.

Led by

Amanda Lehr

Amanda Lehr

A writer and satirist, Amanda Lehr holds a Ph. D. in English literature and Gender studies from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include queer theory, disability studies, and the history of medicine. In addition to her scholarly publications, her work has appeared in venues like the New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and Roxane Gay’s the Audacity.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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