{"id":15350,"date":"2024-06-11T11:21:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T01:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=15350"},"modified":"2024-06-11T11:21:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T01:21:29","slug":"im-a-local-hero-thank-you-thetawnyfrogmouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/im-a-local-hero-thank-you-thetawnyfrogmouth\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a local hero! Thank you, @TheTawnyFrogmouth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wow, thank you to The Tawny Frogmouth<\/em> magazine for such a breathtaking interview in this month\u2019s issue, ‘Local writing hero is an inspiration for living a better life’. I feel seen!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have always felt great empathy for those around me, whether it\u2019s my community, writing tribe, friends or family. So if I notice that something needs changing, and no one else is taking action to make change, I try to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first act of love for my community was actually over 30 years ago, when I founded a writers’ society in high school, so writers and poets could meet once a week to write and talk about writing in the warmth of a classroom (we were in England after all!). Oh, and I established a contact lens station in the school’s sick bay, because more and more students were wearing contact lenses and needed emergency access to saline!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, I’ve been doing whatever I can to give writers in my local community support and exposure, with the aim of celebrating the impressive wealth of creative talent we have here. Since 2009, I’ve used my own resources, money and time to create: five published\u00a0anthologies written by local writers for adults; three youth writing days run by local writers; three printed magazines of young writers\u2019 work edited and prepared for publication by local writers; five children\u2019s books written collaboratively between 19 local writers, published to raise $15,000 for The Kids\u2019 Cancer Project, each of which won \u2018best book\u2019 in the national WABAID awards; five ‘Art & Words Projects’ (a collaborative project I founded back in 2019) on the themes of saltwater, portrait, tree, rain, and glass; and I founded and still run the Northern Beaches Writers’ Group every month. I also judge the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature, and appear on panels for the Northern Beaches Council to talk about the importance of creativity in our community.\u00a0I haven’t done any of these things to benefit me; in fact, the time, money and commitment involved often does the exact opposite! But I feel I have to do them anyway because I truly believe my community needs them to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it was quite a thrill to receive this incredible acknowledgment for my efforts \u2013 The Tawny Frogmouth<\/em>, you are the first to truly see me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, I hope the article inspires others to action any ideas they might have for enabling, encouraging or showcasing creativity in their own communities, thus improving self-fulfilment and mental health. Together, we can all make the world a better place! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the start of the interview…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Meeting Zena Shapter, author, editor, mentor, founder of Northern Beaches Writers\u2019 Group, mother, wife, friend and I suspect much more, felt like being struck by a bolt of energy, intelligence, kindness and generosity…<\/p>\nPaige Turner, The Tawny Frogmouth, June 2024, p44<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Read the rest over here: https:\/\/thetawnyfrogmouth.com.au\/local-writing-hero-zena-shapter-is-an-inspiration-for-living-a-better-life\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, thank you to The Tawny Frogmouth magazine for such a breathtaking interview in this month\u2019s issue, ‘Local writing hero is an inspiration for living a better life’. I feel seen! I have always felt great empathy for those around me, whether it\u2019s my community, writing tribe, friends or family.\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[891,2591,1567,975,2590],"class_list":["post-15350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookish-inspection","category-personal-news","tag-community","tag-local-hero","tag-northern-beaches","tag-sydney","tag-the-tawny-frogmouth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Zena-Shapter-Tawny-Frogmouth-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15350"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15356,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15350\/revisions\/15356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}