I’m Beverley Stevens, a Kiwi writer of creative nonfiction, currently working on a collection of memoir essays.
My pieces have been published in New Zealand literary journals Landfall, Headland and Folly (forthcoming); US journals including Short Reads, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Sad Girl Diaries and the Longridge Review; as well as the Brevity Blog and anthologies published by Rutgers University Press.
It’s only in the last ten years, as I headed towards the end of a career as a technical and web writer, that I began to try to write creatively. I got started by taking University of Victoria community eduation memoir writing courses. Since then I’ve taken several courses in creative nonfiction, consumed many webinars on craft, mostly through Craft Talks, spent a week in Tuscany at the Rebirth Your Book writers’ retreat led by Allison K Williams and Dinty W Moore, and enjoyed a week in Central Otago with friends at the Under Rough Ridge Writers’ Retreat.
I live in Petone, have two daughters, two grandchildren, and two writer groups, but no cats, at least for now; love bush walks, travel (especially in Italy), and play the piano less often than I mean to.
My last full-time job was as a writer and editor for Xero, the New Zealand software company that makes online accounting software for small businesses. If you’d like to know more about my career history, see my LinkedIn profile.
