Introduction
Author Photo: Leona Fay
Deborah Shepard is an Auckland-based author, mentor and teacher of life writing, whose published work over the last decade has included Her Life’s Work: Conversations with Five New Zealand Women, Between the Lives: Partners in Art and Reframing Women: A History of New Zealand Film. Deborah’s latest book project is “Writing Your Heart Out: The Art and Craft of Memoir” and she features some of the work in progress on the ‘How To’ page of this website.
Deborah studied creative writing at Edinburgh University in the 1980s and Life Writing at the City Literary Institute in London 1992-93 and since 2006 has taught an advancing series of Life Writing courses and summer schools for the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Auckland. You can find out more about these courses in the ‘Workshops’ section of this site. In 2010 she was author/mentor on the First Chapters writing programme in Manukau and Papakura, South Auckland where she mentored 30 new writers and edited eleven of their life stories for the publication, Translucence: Life Writing from Manukau and Papakura. She is currently the consultant biographer for the Life Story Service at Mercy Hospice, Auckland.
Dr Shepard is also a film and art historian, and has lectured in The University of Auckland’s Film, TV and Media Studies Department and curated the film section of Wellington City Gallery’s film festival and art exhibition alter/image: feminism and representation in New Zealand art 1973-1993, to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage. She has written various entries on women filmmakers for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and the Paris Le Dictionnaire Des Creatrices Les Editions Des Femmes and earlier in her career she researched and wrote about historic buildings for the Christchurch City Council, worked as a curatorial assistant and an Information Officer for the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. It was there she first developed her interest in writing with a monthly series entitled ‘Picture of the Month at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery’, for the Christchurch Press.
Deborah’s first book Reframing Women: A History of New Zealand Film, was published in 2000 and evolved out of her PhD thesis, written in Auckland University’s Department of Film, TV and Media Studies, on the history of women’s contribution to film in New Zealand. The book was long-listed in the UK Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Awards for leading books published in the fields of photography and the moving image and the interviews with 61 film practitioners including directors, writers, producers, editors, actors, designers, composers and camera people are stored in an oral history collection at the New Zealand Film Archive.
Between 2000 and 2005 Deborah commissioned and edited a collection of nine essays for Between the Lives: Partners in Art, on the theme of close partnership and its impact on the life and work of nine New Zealand art couples: Colin and Anne McCahon, Toss and Edith Woollaston, Frances Hodgkins and Dorothy Kate Richmond, Kendrick Smithyman and Mary Stanley, Rudall and Ramai Hayward, James K Baxter and Jacquie Sturm, Alistair and Meg Campbell, Gil and Pat Hanly and Sylvia and Peter Siddell. In this book Deborah steered away from conventional studies of the male artist and his muse and uncovered a more empowering theme, one that examined working partnerships where both members of the couple were at times anyway - perhaps the best of times in their shared lives - working side by side as artists.
Her most recent book Her Life’s Work (2009) is a study of the life and work of five outstanding individuals; painter Jacqueline Fahey, educator and translator Merimeri Penfold, anthropologist Anne Salmond, film director Gaylene Preston and author Margaret Mahy. Here Deborah poses the question; despite the significant gains for women during the upsurge of late 20th century feminism how easy is it really for women to engage fully in meaningful and creative work that lasts a lifetime, while raising children, running homes and participating in the community doing all the necessary jobs that keep the wheels of society oiled – and still remain focused on a dream and a passion? The book reflects her position as a feminist researcher who believes passionately that the recording of women’s contribution to history is of ongoing importance and relevance. Deborah’s research methodology for this book also reflected her study of feminist practice. In all her projects she applies a participatory model working in close collaboration with the people whose stories she represents.
Deborah studied creative writing at Edinburgh University in the 1980s and Life Writing at the City Literary Institute in London 1992-93 and since 2006 has taught an advancing series of Life Writing courses and summer schools for the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Auckland. You can find out more about these courses in the ‘Workshops’ section of this site. In 2010 she was author/mentor on the First Chapters writing programme in Manukau and Papakura, South Auckland where she mentored 30 new writers and edited eleven of their life stories for the publication, Translucence: Life Writing from Manukau and Papakura. She is currently the consultant biographer for the Life Story Service at Mercy Hospice, Auckland.
Dr Shepard is also a film and art historian, and has lectured in The University of Auckland’s Film, TV and Media Studies Department and curated the film section of Wellington City Gallery’s film festival and art exhibition alter/image: feminism and representation in New Zealand art 1973-1993, to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage. She has written various entries on women filmmakers for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and the Paris Le Dictionnaire Des Creatrices Les Editions Des Femmes and earlier in her career she researched and wrote about historic buildings for the Christchurch City Council, worked as a curatorial assistant and an Information Officer for the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. It was there she first developed her interest in writing with a monthly series entitled ‘Picture of the Month at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery’, for the Christchurch Press.
Deborah’s first book Reframing Women: A History of New Zealand Film, was published in 2000 and evolved out of her PhD thesis, written in Auckland University’s Department of Film, TV and Media Studies, on the history of women’s contribution to film in New Zealand. The book was long-listed in the UK Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Awards for leading books published in the fields of photography and the moving image and the interviews with 61 film practitioners including directors, writers, producers, editors, actors, designers, composers and camera people are stored in an oral history collection at the New Zealand Film Archive.
Between 2000 and 2005 Deborah commissioned and edited a collection of nine essays for Between the Lives: Partners in Art, on the theme of close partnership and its impact on the life and work of nine New Zealand art couples: Colin and Anne McCahon, Toss and Edith Woollaston, Frances Hodgkins and Dorothy Kate Richmond, Kendrick Smithyman and Mary Stanley, Rudall and Ramai Hayward, James K Baxter and Jacquie Sturm, Alistair and Meg Campbell, Gil and Pat Hanly and Sylvia and Peter Siddell. In this book Deborah steered away from conventional studies of the male artist and his muse and uncovered a more empowering theme, one that examined working partnerships where both members of the couple were at times anyway - perhaps the best of times in their shared lives - working side by side as artists.
Her most recent book Her Life’s Work (2009) is a study of the life and work of five outstanding individuals; painter Jacqueline Fahey, educator and translator Merimeri Penfold, anthropologist Anne Salmond, film director Gaylene Preston and author Margaret Mahy. Here Deborah poses the question; despite the significant gains for women during the upsurge of late 20th century feminism how easy is it really for women to engage fully in meaningful and creative work that lasts a lifetime, while raising children, running homes and participating in the community doing all the necessary jobs that keep the wheels of society oiled – and still remain focused on a dream and a passion? The book reflects her position as a feminist researcher who believes passionately that the recording of women’s contribution to history is of ongoing importance and relevance. Deborah’s research methodology for this book also reflected her study of feminist practice. In all her projects she applies a participatory model working in close collaboration with the people whose stories she represents.
