Advancing issues through narrative; telling stories to create change.

Deborah Lee Luskin

Writer, Speaker, Educator

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
    • Living in Place
    • The Middle Ages
    • Lessons From The Long Trail
    • Vermonters by Choice
  • Books
    • Into the Wilderness
    • Elegy for a Girl
    • Works in Progress
  • Writing
    • Writing Circles
    • Private Tutorial
    • Manuscript Development
    • Rosefire Revision Circle
  • Speaking
    • Teaching Literature
    • Author Talks
    • Public Speaking
  • Services
    • Pen-for-Hire
    • Motivating, Facilitating & Celebrating
  • Events
  • Contact

About Deborah

Jane Austen, My Best Friend

Deborah Lee Luskin
Jane Austen became my best friend.

Like so many born in mid-century suburbia, I enjoyed an idyllic childhood and a miserable adolescence. I mitigated loneliness by reading novels; Jane Austen became my best friend. After graduating from Oberlin College with High Honors and few skills, I moved to New York City so I wouldn’t have to buy a car.

I earned a PhD in English Literature at Columbia. My dissertation, Jane Austen and the Limits of Epistolary Fiction, argues that Austen uses letters to teach her characters and her readers the importance of close reading, a skill at which I excel.

Vermont

The good things about graduate school included reading great books, teaching writing at Columbia, and living in New York City. The bad thing about New York City was summer. In 1984, I broke down and bought a car so I could spend the summer in Vermont. I’ve been here ever since.

The Long Marriage
The beginning of the M years: Marriage, Motherhood & Mayhem.

The bucolic splendor of Vermont was quickly offset by adulthood: marriage, motherhood and mayhem. But even while dreaming of order, quiet, and time to write amidst the noise of family life, I taught writing, led reading & discussion groups in libraries around the state, and lectured wherever invited.

The Writing Life

I also managed to write: a parenting column, book reviews, a column about middle age, and topical editorials for local and regional newspapers; commentaries for broadcast on Vermont Public Radio; and free-lance work, translating complex medical research into language an ordinary reader can understand. I’m still a pen-for-hire.

 

Political Vermont
Winner of the Independent Publishers Gold Medal for Regional Fiction

Into the Wilderness, my first published novel, received the 2011 Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Regional Fiction and was recognized by the Vermont Library Association for its “Sense of Place.” I’m currently working on both a novel and a memoir, and I blog weekly at Living in Place.

Leading the Writing Circles, tutoring writers, and coaching others to tell their stories gives me immense satisfaction.

Never shy about sharing my opinions with others, I’ve also become an accomplished public speaker, able to entertain, inform, motivate, facilitate or celebrate, as the situation demands. Since 2010, I’ve been the elected Moderator of the Newfane Town Meeting. Combined with my years of experience and training in restorative justice practices, I’m adept at facilitating difficult conversations. 

Living My Dream

walking is extremely beneficial
Leo, Walk Therapist

I’m now living my dream: writing, speaking, and teaching while living a low-impact life in rural Vermont, where I raise vegetables and poultry, walk the dog, practice yoga, and end each day cooking dinner with my spouse.

It’s a good life.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Deborah Lee Luskin, Writer

Deborah Lee Luskin is a writer by vocation and a Vermonter by choice. Into the Wilderness is her first published novel. Deborah is a skilled writer, talented teacher, eagle-eyed editor and entertaining public speaker. Contact Deborah with information about your project to find out how she can help you.


 

Learn how I can help your writing with Writing Circles, Private Tutorial and Manuscript Development; hire me to write for you or invite me to speak; facilitate or celebrate a meeting or life-cycle occasion.

 

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More about Deb:

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
    • Living in Place
    • The Middle Ages
    • Lessons From The Long Trail
    • Vermonters by Choice
  • Books
    • Into the Wilderness
    • Elegy for a Girl
    • Works in Progress
  • Writing
    • Writing Circles
    • Private Tutorial
    • Manuscript Development
    • Rosefire Revision Circle
  • Speaking
    • Teaching Literature
    • Author Talks
    • Public Speaking
  • Services
    • Pen-for-Hire
    • Motivating, Facilitating & Celebrating
  • Events
  • Contact

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Author Photo - Kelly Fletcher Photography


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