Deborah Dunleavy Author, Storyteller, Playwright, Librettist, Lyricist 

Deborah Dunleavy is an award-winning Literary Artist with over 30 years of professional experience in creating, producing, and touring her programs both nationally and internationally to Scotland, Ireland, China, and Singapore.

"Unsayable Absence" an historical fiction set between the years of 1900 and 1932 had its premier release in November 2021. This June Deborah will officially launch “Unsayable Absence” to the public. Her first foray into adult fiction is a work entitled "The Truth About Trees".  She is the author of two award-winning books for young readers, “The Jumbo Book of Music” and “The Jumbo Book Drama” (KidsCan Press). “The Language Beat”, a book for educators was written for Pembroke Publishers.

Deborah’s storytelling journey has taken her from Labrador to Vancouver Island where she has won the hearts and minds of her listeners. The Arthur Child Heritage Museum hosted Deborah as storyteller in residence and she was a regular storyteller on North Country Public Radio in New York State. The Scottish International Storytelling Festival in Edinburgh invited Deborah to be a featured Canadian storyteller at their 2019 event where she performed the Storytelling Oratorio "Isobel Gunn", a work initially funded by a Creation Grant from The Canada Council of the Arts.

Deborah frequently collaborates with composer (and husband) Howard Alexander on her literary projects including "Isobel Gunn", "La Befana's Gifts" - a Storytelling Oratorio for Young Audiences, and "The Last Wife" - an Adult Chamber Opera. "Scantily Clad - A Musical Melodrama" is slated to be produced by a community theatre troupe this coming summer.

A prolific song crafter, Deborah has worked with Jim Henson Productions and produced five of her own award-winning children's recordings. Her playwriting work includes "Battlefield Petticoats - Women in the War of 1812", and "At the Canoe Club Dance" - a storytelling musical based on true accounts collected from seniors who remembered the years before 1945.

Recently Deborah produced the podcast “Maniwaki Memories”. Waiting in the wings is “Mary Magdalene Miller’s Misadventures in Milltown” twenty-six short stories that she recently wrote and recorded.

Highly regarded by her peers Deborah is a recipient of numerous awards from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, and Storytelling Toronto.