Author photo: Babiche Maartens, NZ Herald
|
Deborah ShepardThe Art of Writing From Life
|
Upcoming Events
Featured Book: The Pain JournalFor twelve months Deborah kept a journal to help her with a chronic pain condition. Soon she found herself contemplating all of life’s pains and losses, including the devastating earthquakes that shattered her hometown of Christchurch.
Searching for a way through, she began observing the natural world on her doorstep and reflecting on family and friendship, flowers, beauty, literature and art. By ‘giving herself to life’ she discovered the power of writing to heal. You can read more about the book on Deborah's website www.thejournal.co.nz. "This lovely journal, not made lovely by chronic pain, but deepened because of it. Humane, delicate and bold as the journals of May Sarton or Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s observation of her snail." — Elizabeth Smither, New Zealand poet and novelist. |
|
Featured Posts
Deborah's Love Letter to the Women's BookshopMy favourite bookshop is the Women’s Bookshop in Ponsonby Road. It opened, first, in Dominion Road in 1989...
|
The Value of attending a Writing ClassYou want to write your memoir? Discover the value of attending a Writing Class and hear past students experiences.
|
Writers'
|
Author photo: Babiche Maartens, NZ Herald
|
About Deborah ShepardDEBORAH SHEPARD is a biographer, oral historian and teacher of memoir. She has also been a film, television and media studies lecturer at the University of Auckland. She has written entries on women filmmakers for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, the Le Dictionnaire Universel des Creatrices, (The Universal Dictionary of Women Creators) published in Paris in 2013 and in 2014 she contributed an updated ‘Reframing Women. Gender et Cinéma en Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande (1999-2014) to a special issue on gender, globalisation and film for the transdisciplinary, French-based and UNESCO-supported journal Diogenes.
|
Her major publications include Her Life’s Work: Conversation with Five New Zealand Women (2009), Between the Lives: Partners in Art (2005), Reframing Women: a History of New Zealand Film (2000) and Giving Yourself to Life: A Journal of Pain, Hope and Renewal (2015).
Her new book The Writing Life based on oral history interviews with twelve of New Zealand’s most acclaimed and admired authors is due out on 6 November. Deborah teaches introductory and master classes in memoir, biography and journal writing at the University of Auckland’s Public Programmes and is a life writing mentor for the New Zealand Society of Authors. She lives in Auckland.
Her new book The Writing Life based on oral history interviews with twelve of New Zealand’s most acclaimed and admired authors is due out on 6 November. Deborah teaches introductory and master classes in memoir, biography and journal writing at the University of Auckland’s Public Programmes and is a life writing mentor for the New Zealand Society of Authors. She lives in Auckland.