Meet Ali Gripper – award winning journalist

Ali Gripper has written features for Australia's leading newspapers and magazines over the past two decades including The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, The Australian, Daily Telegraph and Country Style.

Her first book, The Barefoot Surgeon, about the Nepalese eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2018. It tells the story of a boy from a Himalayan village who, after being trained by the late Professor Fred Hollows, went on to restore sight to more than 130,000 people and who is on a mission to wipe out avoidable blindness throughout the world.

Her second book, Saltwater Cure, draws on compelling, life-affirming stories about the healing power of the ocean – whether it be a balm for mental health, a comfort for an autistic child, the start of a lifelong environmental passion or a path to building community.

A mad-keen ocean swimmer, Ali lives in Sydney with her son (a mad-keen surfer).