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“For one last time horse and rider were becoming part of air not earth.”

“The hills only come back the same: I don’t mind, and all the flat moorland and the sky. I don’t mind they say, and the water says it too, those black falls that are rimmed with peat, and the mountains in the distance to the west say it, and to the north …”

“Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved.”

 

“Deborah Wardle writes heartfelt stories with clarity and compassion.” Carmel Bird

Why We Cry – Excerpt from novel in progress. Chapter One:

More water moves underground than across the surface in these parts. Frankie Pankhurst squinted through the windscreen into summer light. She sped over the straight, flat roads towards Lennie, her father, who was holed up in his hut by the Murray River. The nurse had said he didn’t have long, but she didn’t know Lennie’s wiry core. Frankie wound down the window, let in an oven blast of smells of dry grass and hard-baked soil. Her hair whisked around her buttress-like neck. She tugged her locks forward. The drive gave her time to think.

Recent Publications:

2022: (Editors) Wardle, D., Van Loon J., Taylor, S., Rendle-Short, F., Murray, P., & Carlin, D., A to Z of Creative Writing Methods. Bloomsbury.  See the link: https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/a-to-z-of-creative-writing-methods-9781350184237/ to order copies. Fifty nine short essays from around the world addressing a diverse and innovative list of creative writing methods. Ideal for established and beginner writers, and for scholars in the Creative Writing field.

Forthcoming Books:

Late 2023: Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives. Published by Routledge, Environmental Humanities series. Publishing details to come.