The Writing Life - with Deborah Wardle

In April, Newstead Writers will host Dr Deborah Wardle as part of our continuing series The Writing Life. Deborah’s writing has explored climate fiction’s ways of ‘storying with groundwater’ in her scholarly book, Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives (Routledge, 2024). Her short fiction has been published in the Big Issue, Palliative Care Australia, and Feral Feminism (Canada) and her short story, “Groundwater” was selected for the On this Ground: Best Australian Nature Writing (2025).

Deborah has taught creative writing at RMIT and University of Melbourne, and now teaches a short course in New Nature Writing at the Newstead Arts Hub. She was an editor of the very successful Bloomsbury publication, A to Z of Creative Writing Methods (2023). She brings innovation and kindness to her teaching and learning about creative writing. See https://deborahwardle.com/

Deborah lives with her partner, Deb Shaw, on forty acres at Green Gully, where they are slowly working on regeneration works, particularly reintroducing native grasses to the landscape.

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The Writing Life series is an invitation to a writer to explore the role of writing in their life, perhaps riffing on particular aspects, joys and challenges. 

5.30 for a 6pm start, with snacks provided and drinks at bar prices courtesy of Newstead Arts Hub.  

[Interested in writing with others? come along from 1pm with your writing gear for our 'shut up and write' afternoon - to find out more about these sessions, head to our website https://newsteadwriters.org/]