Deborah Shepard
Deborah Shepard is an Auckland biographer, oral historian, teacher of memoir and journal writing, an editor and mentor. Four of her books have explored aspects of the arts in Aotearoa and have often been based on oral history interviews with living artists, writers, poets and film makers. Her first book Reframing Women was a feminist revisionist history of film in Aotearoa, featuring over eighty film makers from all fields of film production, with excerpts from her oral history interviews with 61 film makers. In 2014 she was commissioned by French journal Diogenes (Sage Productions) to contribute an update on women and film in Aotearoa for an issue on women and gender in film. In 2015 Deborah wrote a journal Giving Yourself to Life, about a year in her life learning how to live with chronic pain. Her fifth book The Writing Life: Twelve New Zealand Authors (2018) was a series of in-depth crafted conversations offering inside glimpses into the challenges and satisfactions of the writing life with authors: Joy Cowley, Marilyn Duckworth, Tessa Duder, Chris Else, Patricia Grace, David Hill, Witi Ihimaera, Fiona Kidman, Owen Marshall, Vincent O'Sullivan, Philip Temple, and Albert Wendt. Between 2018 - 2025 Deborah has been teaching, writing and presenting papers in the following areas: she wrote a Covid Journal 2020-2022 posting her entries each night of the lockdown on Facebook while also teaching 'In Extremis: Writing A Journal in the Time of Coronavirus on Zoom'. Those stories are featured on a forum on her website; in 2021 she recorded an oral history interview with New Zealand born author Pamela Allen for the State Library of NSW; in 2023 she developed a pilot for a storytelling project for artists and musicians who engage with Depot Artspace in Devonport; in 2023-24 she was involved with a community oral history project Voices of Karekare: Cyclone Gabrielle as teacher, mentor, interviewer and lead presenter of a paper at the NOHANZ conference 2024; Deborah has also co-facilitated workshops for oral historians on how to navigate and engage with trauma-based oral history for NOHANZ Auckland (2023) and for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (2025); in 2023 Deborah was commissioned by Auckland Libraries to conduct a series of oral history interviews with Netherlands born poet Riemke Ensing for their Heritage Collections. This was the beginning of a new book project. In 2024 Deborah was the grateful recipient of an Award in History from the Ministry for Heritage and Culture to fund research within New Zealand on a creative non-fiction study of the life and work of poet Riemke Ensing.
Genre:
- Adult Non-Fiction
Skills:
- Academic Writing
Branch:
Auckland
Location:
Auckland
Publications:
Her Life's Work
Pragmatism, humour, stubborn bloody-mindedness – what else does a woman need to carry her through the ups and downs of her life’s work? Her Life’s Work presents the stories of five outstanding New Zealand women artists, writers and thinkers: Jacqueline Fahey, Merimeri Penfold, Anne Salmond, Gaylene Preston and Margaret Mahy.
Publication #2
Giving Yourself to Life: A Journal of Pain, Hope and Renewal
For 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.
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, poet and novelist
“Slow, elegant and brave, this journal, a map of a year of constant pain, delves into the author's struggle to 'live in the moment.' Full of grit and stoicism, the writer makes a beautiful chart of a horrid thing. An admirable achievement.”
~ Kate Llewellyn, poet and author
“Searingly honest, deeply inspiring, Deborah has written a beautiful memoir describing her journey coming to terms with intractable nerve pain. I spent last weekend reading her journal and found it engrossing and inspiring. Deborah has filled the gap of people writing from their own experience of that period in the wilderness when one is in the early days of coming to terms with a chronic condition of any sort. She is so honest, and in a really lovely way. I felt like I was listening to a sister and quietly celebrating her victories and her struggles. A must read for anyone living with pain, as well as for their carers and loved ones.”
— Vidyamala Burch, author of Pain & Illness: The Mindful Way to Free Yourself from Suffering, (2014) co-author of Mindfulness for Health (2013).