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Authors, Poets, Presenters and Musicians

Deb Winter

About

Storyteller Deb Winter has won the hearts of audiences across Wales & beyond with her powerful and heartfelt shows: a diverse range, from her powerful tale of addiction in 'The Red Shoes' and her passionate 'green' stories through to her quirky, humorous 'Refried Fairy Tales' (Grimm's classic stories re-imagined for the modern princess). She tells beautifully-crafted, compelling stories, often working with intuitive, improvising musicians. (Films at: http://www.deborahwinter.co.uk/storytelling.html ).
In 2021 Deb won the Gwobr Esyllt Harker Award for Women Storytellers in Wales, jointly with musician/storyteller Ailsa Mair Hughes. With the prize comes a bursary to support the creation of a new Storytelling show to be performed at Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival in 2023.
Deb has been described as having 'a winning mixture of warmth, high energy, irrepressible humour and a certain something that quivers between originality and eccentricity'. Despite leaning towards laughter, she's not afraid to sound the depths of human nature and she tells the stories of our human frailties and tragedies with compassion and empathy.
Deb was launched into professional storytelling by winning the 'Yarn-spinner' award at Bristol Story Slam in 2015 (large audience-vote event). Deb then took four new shows to the festival in 2016 -19 (reviews at http://www.deborahwinter.co.uk/storytelling.html) . Since then Deb has been busy performing locally & nationally (eg. Fishguard Folk Festival, Swansea Fringe, Cheltenham Science Festival, Fishguard Folk & Tenby Arts Festivals, Llangollen Fringe, Priddy Folk & End of the Road Festival, Swansea Fringe, Felin Uchaf , Theatr Gwaun, Pembrokeshire Coast, Ports Past & Present, Planed, Preseli Heartlands, Pembrokeshire Library service, Span Arts, Queens Hall Narberth).
Deb created & hosted the popular storytelling-and-music night, Fishguard Storytelling/Straeon Gwaun from 2014 onwards, attracting a growing audience from across Pembrokeshire/ Ceredigion.

A champion of all things green, Deb created several new environmentally-themed shows for Transition Bro Gwaun and in 2021 won one of Span Arts 'Love Stories to Nature' commissions to deliver three performance events for the public.
In 2021 Deb was one of four storytellers across Wales to be chosen to be a 'Contemporary Cyfarwydd' (Community Storyteller for Beyond the Border International Storytelling), to deliver, promote and develop storytelling in West Wales.
As part of her Cyfarwydd role, Deb is creating new 'green' shows, inspired by a love of the wild and rising to the challenge of using storytelling to raise awareness of climate change, working on new stories about rising sea levels, deforestation and other environmental issues.
Drawing on her background in the voluntary and community sector, Deb is also creating links with local groups to promote the use of storytelling in the area of mental health and well-being (often called 'applied storytelling'): a therapeutic use of 'the power of story', working in partnership with People Speak Up, a participative arts organisations experienced in the field of arts for health and well-being. Over the pandemic, Deb delivered 'Stories to your Door' to isolated people, standing in gardens across Pembrokeshire telling stories to delighted recipients through an open window! People just love stories...............