Member Profile

Deborah Dunleavy

Photo: NA 2013

Deborah Dunleavy is an award winning story writer and storytelling artist with over 30 years of professional experience in creating, producing and touring her programs both nationally and internationally.

She is a recent recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts Grant which has enabled her to research and write an Adult Storytelling Oratorio based on the life of Isobel Gunn. For this project Ms Dunleavy has engaged composer Howard John Alexander. Previously Mr. Alexander and Ms. Dunleavy collaborated on La Befana's Gifts, a Storytelling oratorio for young audiences supported in part by the Alice Kane Award from Storytelling Toronto.

Ms. Dunleavy has created numerous music and storytelling programs including two one woman story theatre plays: Battlefield Petticoats - Women in the War of 1812, and At The Canoe Club Dance based on true stories collected from seniors who remembered the years before 1945.

A songwriter in her own right, Ms Dunleavy led a long and successful career as a children's author, recording artist and performer. In 1998 she switched creative interests and embraced the art of storytelling. Her tours have taken her to Singapore, China, Ireland, Scotland and throughout Canada.  She was storyteller in residence at the Arthur Child Heritage Museum and a regular storyteller on North Country Public Radio in New York State. The Crystal CD is a compilation of her radio appearances.

Currently Ms Dunleavy is the Eastern Canadian Representative for the Storytellers of Canada. She is a member of The Writer's Union of Canada, SOCAN, Musicians Union of Canada, and The Canadian Children's Book Centre.

www.deborahdunleavy.com

E-mail: c/o Writers' Union of Canada
Phone number:
c/o Writers' Union of Canada

Publications

The Truth About Trees. FishOwlBooks, 2015
The Jumbo Book of Music. Kids Can Press, 2001
Eligible for National Public Readings Program :
Yes

WITS

Presentation Description

TRUST (Grade 7 & up) Deborah talks about the creative process of writing a novel and how important it is to trust your instinct as a writer, how to honor that which you already know, how to listen to your dreams and visions, and how not to sensor the way the story wants to unfold. She give examples, Deborah reads selections from her novel, "The Truth About Trees"

WHEN WORDS WANT TO DANCE (Grades 2 - 6) Deborah recites her engaging and entertaining poetry and lyrics while inviting participation from the audience. Rhythm, rhyme and repetition make up the three R's for this fun creative writing presentation. 

Deborah Dunleavy is an author of fiction and nonfiction. She is an accomplished international storyteller and contemporary librettist. For 30 years she has specialized in arts enrichment in the schools and has performed across Canada including a tour to remote communities in Labrador.

Presentation Length:
45- 60 minutes
Genre:
Literary Fiction, Libretto, Lyrics
Grades:
2-8 and high school
Audience size:
open to discussion
Workshop Description:

SCRIBING OUR STORIES (Grade 7 and up) examines how we can transform our traditional stories and history into the written word through lyrics, poetry, storytelling and narrative fiction.

OUR WORLD - OUR WORDS (Grades 2 - 6) invites playful participation in writing chant stories about the world around us.

Deborah Dunleavy is an author of fiction and nonfiction. She is an accomplished international storyteller and contemporary librettist. For 30 years she has specialized in arts enrichment in the schools and has performed across Canada including a tour to remote communities in Labrador.

Northern OAC WITS:
Yes
One session:
$$250
Two sessions:
$$400
Three sessions:
$$550
Four sessions:
$$600
One session:
$$
GST:
GST not applicable