Deborah Shepard Books
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All of Deborah's past and upcoming events

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


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Deborah thanks Rangimarie Kelly and Pikau Digtal for website design and artist Karen Jarvis for her image ‘Writers at the Devonport Library,’ (2023)
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 © 2023 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 >
      • Conference Paper
      • 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
    • Writer's Stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
    • From Being Mentored to Book Publication
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact