Deborah Robertson- Author, Creative writing lecturer
Discovering the world around us
Deborah Robertson is not only a great teacher and lecturer, she’s a great writer. Her first novel, Careless, has already won a major national literary award, and is one of four titles shortlisted for the 2007 Miles Franklin Literary Award. The book follows seemingly ordinary people whose stories gradually pull the reader into their extraordinary lives.
“I am quite keen that my work is very accessible, that my style is very clear and smooth and that I say what I want to say without a great deal of clouding,” Ms Robertson explains.
“I wanted (Careless) to be about a number of people but I also wanted the book to be about this culture here and now and the sort of lives that we lead here and now.
“The only way I could do that was to show the lives of a number of different characters and to build up that sense of the thickness of the world.”
Creative flair
And just like the characters in her book, there is more to Ms Robertson’s creative writing style.
After dabbling with journalism early in her career, she decided to commit to creative writing but with a distinctly reflective, observational style.
“I’m interested in realism. That’s what I particularly like in fiction,” she says.
“It is a bit like holding a mirror up to society and saying ‘this is what we look like, this is what we do’.”
And it is a style which Ms Robertson has successfully transplanted into her creative writing teaching at Murdoch, helping to set up an innovative course in literary journalism.
“Creative writing was a term that could be applied to all sorts of writing,” she says.
“I wanted a course where journalism students could push their boundaries a little bit and where creative writing students could engage with the world out there.
“There are so many stories around and they don’t have to be enormous stories.
“But to learn how to look closely at someone’s life and to observe and then to communicate what you’ve learned to a reader is fundamental to any writing.”
Showing the way
Ms Robertson’s passion for creative writing is catching on at Murdoch with some fantastic results. Recently, two of her PhD pupils have been published by two of the country’s heavyweight publishers.
Sean Gorman’s novel, Brotherboys has had terrific response since hitting the shelves through Allen and Unwin. David Whish-Wilson has also reached success after Random House published his novel, The Summons earlier this year.
“That’s no mean feat to get published by those two national publishers with your first works,” Ms Robertson said.
Discover related areas of study:
|
