Deborah Huff-Horwood
"When I write, I go places. I'm my most me when it's just one-letter-after-another-letter-after-another... etching myself into my own skin. Writing is my idea of escape – but to the truth."

DEBORAH HUFF-HORWOOD  
is a writer from Canberra, Australia who creates compelling stories around themes of creativity, resilience, hope and loss.

Writing is her thing. ​
A full-time thing, and she's never happier than when seated at her desk with the sound of silence and her laptop.  She scoops ideas from her life and wrangles the words into smooth and slippery sentences, jostles the verbs and prods the nouns until they are the very best they can be.  She teases and squeezes and tempts even the shy little words to come out to play, and loves telling people how thrilling that is. She is a passionate advocate of the Freefall writing technique.  

She's doing well. 
Remarkably well! Scroll down to read her 44 writing awards, short-listings and long-listings since April 2020.
Deborah is published in 17 anthologies as a result of entering competitions. She writes novels (Middle Grade, Young Adult, Women's Fiction), picture books, short stories and play scripts. She's actively involved  in conferences and workshops and is a current member of  MARION, the South Coast Writers' Centre, and Queensland Writers' Centre.
She's been a regular contributor to Love Street Writers Writers' Reading Hour, and member of SCBWI Picture Book critique groups. She read aloud at the South Coast Writer's Centre Poetry Awards in March '21, and at the Under The Silver Tree Writing Awards in Broken Hill in April '21. In 2024 she's participating in 'Between The Lines' – MARION's facilitated creative reading program for writers.

Deborah is also a Costume Designer:
In August 2023, she designed and created (in silk) late 18th century-inspired costumes for REP Theatre ACT's production of AMADEUS. These won 'Outstanding Costumes' in the Canberra & Queanbeyan Performing Arts OVATIONS  Awards.

Deborah was formerly:
  • a primary school teacher for eighteen years, passionate about literacy education and children's literature. 
  •  involved in the world of theatre and dress design.  She studied stage design at NIDA, and sold hand-painted silk clothing in Sydney  as 'Black Tie Designs'. She created  children's dress-ups in Canberra as 'Things with Wings (& Tails & Stings)'.  
  • a qualified pastry chef, apprenticed to Ovolo Nishi Hotel's Monster Kitchen restaurant in 2018. She ran 'Lemon and Almonds' patisserie catering, and operated a weekly patisserie market stall.
PUBLICATIONS featuring Deborah's short stories since April 2020:

​AWARDS & COMMENDATIONS
  1. Recipient of the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund, Round 12, through Writers Victoria, for queer 80s YA road-trip romance novel Jemima Is Stardust (Nov 2024)
  2. Won an Emerging Writers Mentorship with MARION (ACT Writers), for YA novel Jemima Is Stardust, to be mentored by Lucy Neave (Aug 2024)
  3. Short story Better Out Than In  won Queensland Writers Centre's Right Left Write monthly competition (April). Published online at https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?u=9de934b11dcd729ba54bb095b&id=cc3090ae90  (May 2024)
  4. COSTUME DESIGN: Won Outstanding Costume Design, in The Ovations Awards (Canberra & Queanbeyan Performing Arts), for AMADEUS (Feb 2024)
  5. COSTUME DESIGN: Nominated for Best Costumes for a Play, in the CAT Awards, for AMADEUS (Canberra REP Theatre)  (Dec 2023)
  6. Assorted writings helped to reach shortlisted interview stage for MARION's Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writers Fellowship  (June 2023)
  7. Short Story It's Always The Sea  longlisted for Furphy Literary Award (June 2023)
  8. Short Story Bird's Eye View longlisted for Furphy Literary Award (June 2023)
  9. Short Story, No More Scratching At The Page  won Commended in  Under The Silver Tree Writing Competition (May 2023)
  10. Monologue Waiting For The Envelope  shortlisted for Rep Theatre ACT's 'The Logues' competition (Apr 2023)
  11. Assorted writings helped gain a coveted place in 'Hidden Nerve' – MARION's year-long program on the art of writing prose  (Apr 2023)
  12. Memoir A Finely Tortured Thing  won First Prize  in the FAWQ Gloria Anderlini Memoir Competition  (Sep 2022)
  13. Won the South Coast Writers Centre Emerging Writers Mentorship Program – General Stream (Sep 2022)
  14. Short Story Heart Weeding  won the Griefline Prize in the Grieve Project/Anthology established by the Hunter Writers Centre. Published. (Aug 2022)
  15. Short story Mountainside  won HC in Short Stories Unlimited, Winter Competition. (Aug 2022) 
  16. Poem Our Writing Group  won a prize in Writing NSW 30th Anniversary Writing Competition (Aug 2022)
  17. Short story Her Scented Walk  published in the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) anthology ‘ACE  3' (Jul 2022)
  18. YA novel Jemima Is Stardust  won a scholarship for Manuscript Mentorship with award-winning author Tabitha Bird (Jul 2022)
  19. Short Story The End Is Round  won Highly Commended (Open) in Under The Silver Tree Short Story Competition. Published online at https://www.underthesilvertree.com/store-policies (Jun 2022)
  20. Synopsis for YA novel Jemima Is Stardust  shortlisted for The Darling Axe, Synopsis Skirmish Competition (Canada) (Jun 2022)
  21. Rhyming children's story Annie The Wonder-Witch  published in Anthology Angels, 'It's A Kind Of Magic' (May 2022)
  22. Poem Sheets Creak  longlisted for  South Coast Writers' Centre 2022 Poetry Awards (Apr 2022)
  23. Flash fiction Penny, On Pillows  published in South Coast Writers' Centre anthology 'Legacies' (Mar 2022)
  24. Short Story ​In Her Eyes  published in ACT Family History 2021 Anthology (after entering E M Fletcher Prize) (Jan 2022)
  25. Adult fiction novel (80,000 words) Katie's Road Trip  selected for Subsidised Manuscript Development through Queensland Writers' Centre (Nov 2021)
  26. Pitch for Middle grade novel The Cumulus Island Challenge  longlisted for Just Write For Kids Australia, Pitch It! Competition (Oct 2021)
  27. Short story Greenthing  longlisted for the Sydney Hammond Memorial Short Story Competition (Oct 2021).  Published in Hawkeye Books’ 2021 Anthology ‘Jump’
  28. Short story Just Don't Stop  shortlisted for the Growlife Medical Essay Competition (Aug 2021)
  29. Short story Waiting For The Envelope  received Honourable Mention in Word Periscope Flash 1500 Competition (UK) (Jun 2021)
  30. Short story The Suitcase shortlisted for Rhiza Edge Short Story Competition (May 2021).  Published in the Rhiza Edge anthology, The Opposite Of Disappearing
  31. Rhyming children's story The Nurgle Of The Elms  published in Anthology Angels, Once Upon A Whoops!  (Aug 2021)
  32. Short story Our Trip To The Blowhole  won 1st Prize (Memoir Category) in the Under The Silver Tree Writing Competition (Apr 2021) and read aloud at UTST Awards ceremony at Broken Hill Art Collective by the author
  33. Micro-fiction Pressing Herself' shortlisted for Geminga competition run by Sunspot Literary Journal (USA)  (Apr 2021) 
  34. Short story The Camellia Garden  won Highly Commended in the Stringybark Open Short Story Award (Apr 2021).  Published in the Stringybark Anthology 'The Mirror' 
  35. Short storiy Within and Without  longlisted for the second edition of Aniko Press magazine (Mar 2021)​
  36. Short story Fracture  longlisted for the second edition of Aniko Press magazine (Mar 2021)
  37. Prose-poem Let Me Sing You The Sea  shortlisted for the South Coast Writers Centre Poetry Award (Mar 2021) and read aloud at SCWC Awards ceremony at Wollongong Art Gallery by the author. 
  38. Short story The Suitcase  won 3rd Prize in the Port Stephens Literature Award 2020 (Dec 2020)
  39. Short story The Suitcase won Highly Commended by the judges of the Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award with ACT Writers Centre (Dec 2020)
  40. Children's picture book Lily McGileagh's Colourful Ways  won 3rd Prize in Jackie Hoskings' Spring Competition for Writers of Metre & Rhyme (Nov 2020)
  41. Short story The Suitcase  shortlisted for the Better Read Than Dead Short Story Competition (Oct 2020). Published in Better Read Than Dead 2020 anthology.
  42. Short story The Disc Slides In...click longlisted for the Sydney Hammond Memorial Short Story Competition (Oct 2020).  Published by Hawkeye Press in their anthology 'Reset'. 
  43. Short story  I Need To Believe  longlisted by Exile Academy Non-Fiction Competition (Sept 2020).  Published by Exile Publishing in their  anthology 'Turning Point' 
  44. Short story The Suitcase won Highly Commended by the judges of AAWP-Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Emerging Writers’ Prize (Sep 2020) 
  45. Short story Let Me Sing You The Sea longlisted for the first edition of Aniko Press magazine (Jul 2020)
  46. Short story Oval Walk won Highly Commended (and cash prize) in Under The Silver Tree Writing Competition (Apr 2020)

​Kingston Foreshore, Kingston, Canberra ACT 2604

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Deborah Huff-Horwood