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DEB
WESTBURY
Deb Westbury has been a familiar
and respected voice in Australian poetry since her work was first published
in 1975. Her poetry has since been widely anthologised, including the
Oxford Anthology of Women's Verse (edited by Susan Lever, 1995).
Deb was born and has spent
most of her life on the NSW coast south of Sydney, developing a dual
career as a writer and teacher - with an undergraduate degree in teaching
and a Master of Creative Arts degree in writing.
Deb is an inspirational educator
and speaker, as well as an entertaining reader of her own poetry. She
teaches courses in creative writing at university and for various community
groups and high schools throughout the state. In 1999 she was guest
lecturer at the prestigious Catskill Poetry Workshop in the US. In August
2000 she was writer in residence for James Cook University in Queensland.
She is actively involved with the Poets' Union, The Australian Society
of Authors and Varuna Writers' Centre in the Blue Mountains where she
presently resides.
  
Since her first collection
of poetry, Mouth to Mouth, was published in 1990 Deb
has written Our Houses are Full of Smoke (Angus and
Robertson, 1994), Surface Tension (Five Islands Press,
1998) and, most recently, Flying Blind (Brandl &
Schlesinger, 2002), for which she was awarded a two-year grant from
the Literature Board of the Australia Council to complete.
A new edition of Mouth
to Mouth was published by Hodder Education in 1998 to coincide with
this book's inclusion on the English reading list for the NSW Higher
School Certificate. Hodder educational titles are now distributed by
Cambridge University Press.
Deb is available for talks
and workshops about her work and is particularly well equipped to meet
the demands of HSC students, her relaxed and approachable manner encouraging
students to embrace discussion. In addition to talking about her own
work, she has developed a writing workshop devoted to The Process Journal.
The full list of Deb's workshops
is as follows:
1 |
The
Journal - a writer's best friend - using new journal writing
techniques to expand your creativity.
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2 |
'Whole
Body Smiling' - writing from the senses, metaphor and simile.
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3 |
Orchestra
- for teachers who want to introduce creative writing into their
classrooms.
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4 |
A tourist in your own town - fresh ways of thinking and writing
about place.
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5 |
'If
the shoe fits' - experimenting with point of view, dialogue
and monologue.
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6 |
Stories
that come naturally - dreams, memories and biography.
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7 |
The Larger Story - Archetypes, Fairy Tales and Myths.
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8 |
Overcoming
Writer's Block.
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9 |
Haiku
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10 |
Ways
of Seeing - using pictures as a stimulus to writing.
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11 |
Ballads
for Beginners - learn to write in poetic form, favoured by Banjo
Patterson and Henry Lawson and generations of Australian readers. |
12 |
Writing
to Heal - for Women Survivors of Trauma. |
13 |
The
Process Journal |
Deb also
offers her Handmade Book Workshop.
This workshop is
a new way to celebrate books and writing, incorporating poetry
and creative
writing exercises. Complexity in form and content is adapted to
all ages and abilities.
For more information please click here.
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