Deborah Shepard Books
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Events

All of Deborah's past and upcoming events

Writing Family Stories at the Devonport Library

29/9/2022

 
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Writing Family Stories at the Devonport Library
 
Monday 31 October to Monday 21 November 2022
 
Course Description
This workshop, facilitated by memoir teacher Dr Deborah Shepard, offers an opportunity to explore your family stories using photographs, heirlooms and meaningful domestic objects to trigger a creative response.   No prior writing experience is required, just a passion to tell stories about the significant figures and events from your historic past to the recent past and a willingness to explore the creative possibilities. The workshop is open to all ages.    
 
When: Four evening sessions  Monday 31 October — Monday 21 November, 6.30-8.30pm
Where: Devonport Library
Fee: $150 - Please register your interest at  https://www.deborahshepardbooks.com/contact.html
Bring: family photos, treasures, heirlooms, household objects from any era up to the recent past
and an A4 lined notebook.
 
Local author Dr Deborah Shepard is an experienced teacher of memoir and the author of several books on arts and culture in Aotearoa New Zealand including Her Life’s Work and The Writing Life: Twelve New Zealand Authors. You can explore her work and a ‘Writers Stories’ forum at https://www.deborahshepardbooks.com/writers-stories
 
What people say about Deborah’s memoir courses:
I came away with a lot of confidence that I had something to say and that I could say it well
— Terry Levenberg
Over the five sessions I found my “creative writing voice” as an apprentice, in a safe and supportive environment and through a superbly designed course. As a small group of diverse writers, we were expertly guided by the wise and gentle Deborah, who is an outstanding teacher
— Maria Kazmierov
 
Recent feedback on Journalling in Extraordinary Times at the Devonport Library
Through journal writing with Deborah I found my writing voice which helps me live with ease and authenticity every day.
— Catherine Moorhead
My appreciation of journalling as an art was deepened through Deborah's bibliography bringing together writers of different writing styles, backgrounds, countries and historical periods.
— Sylvia Nagl
Journals are magic portals to finding beauty and sense in the everyday and Deborah showed us how to find the key.
— Jicca Smith

Introduction to Memoir now available on Zoom

4/6/2021

 
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Starting Monday 28 February until Monday 16 May 2022
A note: The Zoom platform works extremely well for a course of this nature. Deborah welcomes people from around Aotearoa and across the globe to this worthwhile and very nourishing course.

Course Description
 
Currently we are living through uncharted times where the familiar everyday patterns of existence have been disrupted by a global pandemic. A memoir course at this time of uncertainty offers a welcome refuge and reflective space to investigate and preserve your memories in written form. The process of gathering together the various threads of your life experience and beginning to make meaning of them is an engrossing and ultimately grounding activity. This might be the perfect time to draw on your courage and commit to writing the story of your life.    
 
This course is designed for people who yearn to write a record of their life. It is for those who have never written and for those who enjoy writing in other genres but haven’t yet tried memoir. Under Deborah’s guidance, and in a mutually supportive environment, this ten-week course offers the essential structure, method and themes to help the memoirist strengthen the writing voice and begin to realise the memoir project.
  
Author Dr Deborah Shepard is an experienced memoir tutor, writing mentor and biographer. Her books include: The Writing Life: Twelve New Zealand Authors, Her Life’s Work, Between the Lives: Partners in Art  and Reframing Women: a history of New Zealand film.  Over eight sessions she will introduce you to the pleasures of writing memoir, to the history of the genre and inspiring samples of work by memoirists such as: Janet Frame, Janice Galloway, Charlotte Grimshaw, Fiona Kidman,  Blake Morrison, Peter Wells, Jeanette Winterson, Tim Winton. Working on your own and as a group, sharing the writing as you go, you will complete a collection of memoir pieces and portraits that will supply the structure upon which to develop your memoir. Each participant receives an individual mentoring session with Deborah and an opportunity to publish on her ‘Writers’ Stories’ forum at https://www.deborahshepardbooks.com/writers-stories

Session topics:
  1. Defining Memoir. I was born…
  2. Where I write. Episodic memories of early childhood
  3. The art and craft of writing. Adolescence: the growing season
  4. Organising material, chronology, timelines, structure. The passage to adulthood
  5. Thematic writing. The Road Chosen
  6. Ethical considerations. On loving and friendship: portrait of a significant person
  7. The reliability of memory. Looking back from a distance
  8. Historical context. When my life intertwined with a major historical event 
  9.  Individual mentoring session. Resilience: how to write well about life's challenges.
  10. Committing to the memoir project: a self-portrait in the moment
 
What people say about Deborah’s memoir courses

I came away with a lot of confidence that I had something to say and that I could say it well
                                                                                                   —   Terry Levenberg

Over the five sessions I found my “creative writing voice” as an apprentice, in a safe and supportive environment and through a superbly designed course. As a small group of diverse writers, we were expertly guided by the wise and gentle Deborah, who is an outstanding teacher                                       
                                                                                                 — Maria Kazmierov

Recent feedback on Journalling in Extraordinary Times at the Devonport Library
 
Through journal writing with Deborah I found my writing voice which helps me live with ease and authenticity every day.         
                                                                                                — 
Catherine Moorhead
 
My appreciation of journalling as an art was deepened through Deborah's bibliography bringing together writers of different writing styles, backgrounds, countries and historical periods. 
                                                                                               — Sylvia Nagl 

Journals are magic portals to finding beauty and sense in the every day and Deborah showed us how to find the key.
                                                                                               — 
Jicca Smith 
Deborah provided  a  safe, welcoming  and skilled approach to journal writing, which enabled group members to find their voice and delight in writing.
                                                                                            — Sally Monks

When:  28 February — 16 May 2022
Number of sessions: Ten sessions Mondays 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Where: on Zoom 
Course fee: $350
Contact Deborah: Via her Contact Page on this website

In Extremis: Journalling in Extraordinary Times

22/1/2021

 
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In Extremis: Journaling in Extraordinary Times at the Devonport Library

When:  22 February — 12 April 2021
Number of sessions: Eight sessions Mondays 6pm – 8.30pm
Where: Devonport Library
Course fee: $280
Contact: d.shepard@xtra.co.nz

Course Description
Currently we are living through an extraordinary time in world history where all the familiar norms of our known existence have been turned upside down by a global pandemic. Yet inherent in this situation, some call it a ‘dangerous opportunity’, is the potential to deepen our experience of the present.Through writing a daily journal you can begin to make sense of what is happening. Through the art of observation, reflection and contemplation, you will find the balance you need to live more peacefully and more fully in each and every given moment.

The journal genre is the ideal genre to discover and develop your writing skills. On this course, as well as establishing a writing routine, you will be creating a record of your own experience for yourself and for future generations.
 
About the teacher:
This journal workshop is presented by author Dr Deborah Shepard, an experienced memoir tutor, NZSA, writing mentor, editor and an earlier Autumn Resident and teacher of Masterclasses in Memoir at the Michael King Writer’s Centre. Her course offers a writing sanctuary where you can reconnect with your inner life and discover what is on your mind.
Over eight session you will receive an introduction to the pleasures and history of the journal form including samples of work by some of the great journalers. Working on your own and as a group, sharing the writing as you go, you will receive writing techniques and triggers to stimulate a series of journal entries; an individual mentoring session with Deborah and an opportunity to publish on https://www.deborahshepardbooks.com/writers-stories 
 
Writing experience
We all have the capacity to write from our personal experience on the subjects that matter to us and on Deborah’s courses you will find techniques and triggers that help strengthen and develop your writing voice. This course is suitable for all comers who have a yearning to write.
 
Sessions topics:
  1. Getting Started. Why Write a Journal?
  2. My Writing Space: Settling in
  3. What is my content?
  4. What is my purpose?
  5. Writing a journal in extremis
  6. Ethics: How deep do I go?
  7. Journaling in nature
  8. A commitment to the journal project
 
What people say about Deborah’s courses:
I came away with a lot of confidence that I had something to say and that I could say it well
—    Terry Levenberg

Over the five sessions I found my “creative writing voice” as an apprentice, in a safe and supportive environment and through a superbly designed course. As a small group of diverse writers, we were expertly guided by the wise and gentle Deborah, who is an outstanding teacher                                            
— Maria Kazmierov

Deborah has a beautiful, compassionate, inclusive approach to teaching
—    Janet Sergeant


In Extremis: Writing a Journal in the Time of Coronavirus with Deborah Shepard

13/4/2020

 
In Extremis: Writing a Journal in the Time of Coronavirus  with Deborah Shepard
When: 17 April — 20 May 2020
Number of sessions: Eight sessions, 4.30pm – 6pm
Format: Weekend workshop starting 4.30pm Friday 17 April then weekly on Wednesdays
Where: Zoom Online course in your writing room

Course description
Currently we are living through an extraordinary time in world history, where all the familiar
norms of our known existence have been turned upside down by a global pandemic. For each
of us, living through this state of lockdown, our sense of security has been shattered, our
inner resilience tested. We wonder if life will ever return to normal. Yet inherent in this
situation, some are calling it a ‘dangerous opportunity,’ is a potential gift. Through writing a
daily journal you can begin to make sense of what is happening and through the act of
reflection, observation and contemplation, create a new rhythm and sense of balance that will
help you deepen your experience of the present. When lockdown is over your journal will
contain a record for future generations, while the writing will be firmly established as a
practice to take into the future.

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Life Writing Weekend Workshop

31/1/2020

 
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When: Postponed until further notice due to Covid-19
Where: Sun & Moon wellbeing centre, Leeston, Canterbury

We all have the capacity to write from our personal experience about the subjects that are important to us. On a life writing workshop with experienced tutor Deborah Shepard you will be introduced to techniques and triggers, memoir themes and topics that will enable you to discover your writing voice. Under Deborah’s gentle guidance you will have an opportunity to indulge your writing dream and record your stories in a collaborative and supportive environment. 

Read More

Life Writing with Deborah Shepard 2020

29/11/2019

 
Under Deborah’s gentle guidance you will have five blissful days to indulge your dream and begin your life writing project in a collaborative and supportive environment.

WHEN: 5 x sessions, Monday 20 - 24 January 2020, 9:30am - 1:00pm
WHERE: The University of Auckland, City Campus

Course outline

Session One: Getting Started
  • Introductions
  • a definition of memoir and why people write memoir
  • writing exercise: What brought me here?
  • a conducive environment for writing
  • a timeline of my life
  • group analysis of literary excerpts: ‘I was born’
  • writing exercise: ‘I was born.’
Session Two: Remembering Childhood
  • The Writing Life: writers’ studios and the writing discipline
  • writing exercise: ‘My Writing Space’
  • writing tips and guidelines for the presentation of work
  • edit workshop: a group exercise
  • group analysis of literary excerpts: ‘Remembering Childhood’
  • writing exercise: ‘Remembering Childhood’
Session Three: Riding the Teenage Years
  • Identifying themes, finding the ideal form for your story, demystifying the process
  • writing exercise: ‘Identifying my themes’
  • Reviewing memoir — your impressions
  • Tips on editing, writing a brief bio and posting a story
  • writing exercise: ‘Riding the Teenage years’
Session Four: The Road Chosen and a mentoring session 
  • writing exercise: ‘The Road Chosen: On Career, Family and Lifelong Passions’
  • individual mentoring sessions with Deborah Shepard
Session five: 
  • group reading of participants’ stories posted on ‘Your Story’
  • the defining qualities of successful authors
  • how to protect your writing project and continue the work
  • performing opportunities
  • group analysis of literary excerpts: a self-portrait
  • writing exercise: ‘A self-portrait: where to from here?’
  • shared lunch
Learning outcomesOn completion of this course, participants will be able to: continue the reading programme established on the course, using my bibliography and read memoir critically sit down and write with confidence write for online publication continue writing their memoir for book publication, for blogging, as an essay, for a family history project and perform the writing at the monthly Inside Out Open Mic forum.

Who should attend?
This course is designed for: new writers, people who are interested in writing and are newcomers to the genre people who want to discover their writing voice people who want to record their stories for their family people who want to write and publish their life story people who want to explore their inner world and express their thoughts and feelings and observations and transform them into literature young and older writers people who have written in another genre such as fiction or poetry, or non-fiction and who want to explore memoir.

register

Life Writing: Memoir and Biography 2020

29/11/2019

 
Writing memoir involves a balance between capturing your own memories on the page and writing biographical accounts of the people, including the ancestors, who have left an imprint on your life.

WHEN: 5 X sessions, Monday 7 - Friday 11 September, 9:30am - 1pm
WHERE: The University of Auckland, City Campus


Course outline
Writing memoir involves an intricate interplay between writing down and preserving your own memories and constructing biographical accounts of the people, including the ancestors, who have left an imprint on your life. On this course, you will receive tuition on the fundamentals of writing memoir and biography and its ethical implications along with techniques that will assist you to write with flair and originality about the key figures, both living and from the past, who have influenced and helped shape your life. It is suitable for participants who have not yet completed Life Writing 1.

Session one: Arriving here – the importance of preserving my story and the family history.
  • An introduction to the joys of writing memoir and biography
  • Writing exercise 1: arriving here and establishing intent
  • Writing exercise 2: My life and the ancestors. Who were they? How did I love them?
Session two: Writing biography
  • Establishing intention and audience
  • research skills and how to organise archival material
  • What biographical sources do I have at my fingertips: letters, journals, personal accounts, photographs
  • how much do I write?
  • how do I integrate the family stories into my memoir narrative
  • what are my responsibilities as biographer intent on preserving their truths?
  • An editing workshop.
  • Writing exercise 1: My research aspirations
  • Writing exercise 2: A brief biographical introduction to…
Session three: The gentle art of oral history and life review
  • Where do I begin to tell the story of your life?
  • A workshop on conducting oral history to discover the shape of a person’s life
  • Practical exercise: recording your story
  • Writing exercise: Considering the life story arc.
Session four: The ethical implications of writing about friends, family, lovers and loved ones
  • Writing exercise: How do I balance my need to express my truths with a commitment to writing compassionately about the people who figure in my story: what are the ethical implications of writing a biography?
  • An individual mentoring session with Deborah
Session five: Publication and celebration
  • Preserving the ongoing work: how to maintain focus, enthusiasm and a long-term commitment to the writing project.
  • Writing exercise: Reflecting on my story and their story and how they intertwine.
Who should attend?
  • People who have completed Deborah’s Life Writing or memoir courses.
  • New writers interested in discovering their writing voice through writing about themselves and the people who frame their life.
  • Writers already engaged on a life story project who are wishing to deepen and revive their writing content.
REGISTER

Nature writing weekend workshop with NZ author and teacher Deborah Shepard

16/9/2019

 
About the event

​At no time in history has nature writing seemed more important and pertinent than now, poised as we are in the midst of a climate crisis. Yet each day as we navigate the welter of alarming reports in the media it is easy to feel a rising sense of helplessness. What can I really do, on my own, to avert a catastrophe?  On this workshop the focus will be on redirecting our anxieties into paying deep attention to the wonder of Nature, discovering what it can teach us and how we in turn can contribute to the discussion by paying tribute, through creative expression, to its majesty and power.

Join author and experienced writing tutor Deborah Shepard on her writing residency at the historic Karekare Homestead, for a weekend of nature writing in a remarkable location on the margins between the Waitakere Ranges and the Tasman sea. Writing in the homestead and outdoors you will have an opportunity to develop your writing skills and sharpen your powers of observation and analysis through a range of writing exercises, group discussion, and the study of nature texts.

Event includes
Writing exercises on:
  • Your personal relationship with nature beginning with your earliest memory of engaging with nature and its majestic power
  • Immersive writing on the beach at Karekare and from a higher location in the dunes
  • A close encounter with nature
  • Exploring, understanding and respecting the wild: reflecting on what we can learn from the natural world and considering how we can contribute to the discussion through our writing
An introduction to the nature writing genre:
  • Group study of a selection of some of the most inspiring examples of nature writing
  • A reading programme based on a selected bibliography of the nature writing genre
Sharing our experiences through writing:
  • An opportunity to share your writing with a community of writers united in the act of reflecting on the importance of the natural world
An opportunity to deepen your appreciation of nature through a writing project:
  • This course may provide a starting point for your own writing project or be the stimulus and encouragement you need for a work in progress

This workshop is suitable for all comers who feel passionate about the natural world. We all have the capacity to write from our personal experience on the subjects that matter to us. On Deborah’s courses you are introduced to techniques and triggers that help strengthen and develop your writing voice.
MAKE A BOOKING

Life Writing: Memoir and Biography

15/9/2019

 
Writing memoir involves an intricate interplay between writing down and preserving your own memories and constructing biographical accounts of the people, including the ancestors, who have left an imprint on your life.

On this course, you will receive tuition on the fundamentals of writing memoir and biography and its ethical implications along with techniques that will assist you to write with flair and originality about the key figures, both living and from the past, who have influenced and helped shape your life. It is suitable for participants who have not yet completed Life Writing 1.

When: TBA - most likely the 
the third week of January

Visit the Public Programmes website to make an enquiry: 
https://www.publicprogrammes.ac.nz/

Writing from life, plus music

6/3/2019

 

Come along to The Open Book's monthly cultural extravaganza and find out some secrets.


With talks and performances by:
* Caren Wilton (oral historian, writer, editor and author of My Body, my business
* Deborah Shepard (biographer, latest book The Writing Life)
* Alex Taylor (musician)

Plus Q&A, snacks and even a glass of wine. IKR!

Deborah Shepard and Caren Wilton talk about their recent books based on oral history interviews, and the art of writing from life. Deborah Shepard's book The Writing Life: Twelve New Zealand authors is a series of conversations with leading New Zealand writers. Caren Wilton's My Body, My Business: New Zealand sex workers in an era of change is a collection of life stories of sex workers.

Alex Taylor will play some songs.
​
Anna Livesey, poet and corporate strategist, will be your MC.
FIND OUT MORE
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Writing Memoir
Defining Memoir
The Participatory Model
Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
​From Writing Course to Book Publication
Your Writing Space
​Writing on a Theme
Reviews of Memoir
Writers Stories
​
Events
​About
Testimonials
What People Say

Media
​Contact
Copyright © 2017 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact