Edwina Shaw
Edwina Shaw is a writer of fiction and memoir. Her novella Thrill Seekers was released in the UK and USA through Ransom Publishing in September 2011 and is due for Release in Australia early 2012. She has also had several short pieces published in Australian literary journals, Griffith REVIEW, Island, Hecate and Idiom 23 and most recently has published internationally in Asia Literary REVIEW. In 2008 she was awarded the Griffith REVIEW’s Frank Moorhouse mentorship for most promising new writer. Her stories have also placed highly in a number of Australian literary prizes, including the Josephine Ulrick Literature Award. Currently, she is working on her second book, When it Rains, a novel set in Cambodia, with the expert guidance of Judith Lukin-Amundsen, her Australian Society of Author’s mentor. This work has also been recognized with an HachetteLivre/QWC mansucript development award, and an excerpt was shortlisted for the 2007 Women’s Weekly Short Story Competition. Edwina has presented her work at a number of literary events.
She holds a Masters Degree in Philosophy (Creative Writing) from the University of QLD where she also works teaching narrative and creative nonfiction. She has written two other full length works in varying degrees of completion: a combined memoir/emotional healing guide, “First Aid For your Heart” that is searching for a home, and her most recent project, ”Into The Fire”, a domestic drama set in the cane fields of far North Queensland.
Apart from her degree in Creative Writing, Edwina also holds a Bachelors degree in English Literature and a Diploma of Education in Special Needs. She has a background in education: from teaching in a maximum security Juvenile Justice Centre to establishing a private language school in Cambodia. Since returning to Australia and having a family she has taught English as a second language to refugees and currently works teaching creative writing and yoga.
The worst job she’ s ever had was selling dagwood dogs (corn dogs) in Sideshow Alley, closely contested by her long stint as a house cleaner.
She welcomes the opportunity to speak to young people and adults about expressing themselves in writing, ways to safely move through loss, and the very real risks or partying too hard. She is available for booking by using this site to contact the author directly.
Edwina grew up in Joh Bjelke Petersen’s Brisbane during the seventies and eighties but she escaped to live in Kings Cross and Darlinghurst in Sydney, Leipzig in Germany, Singapore, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville in Cambodia. She now lives happily back in Queensland with her husband and children, possums, bush turkeys, chickens and the occasional python.
She is available for speaking engagements and workshops. Please book through SpeakersInk
