Heather Cameron is a poet with a particular interest in autopathography and elegiac works. Her first collection of poetry, A Random Caller – Cancer Poetry, published by Ginninderra Press, SA in 2023 was completed as part of her creative arts PhD at Deakin University. Her second and third collections, as yet unpublished, explore further themes of trauma, loss and grief experienced as a result of family violence and sexual assault. One of these poems, The lie, won the Society of Women Writers NSW poetry competition 2024, and another poem, A day in the life of, was Highly Commended in the Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition, Limerick, Ireland, in April 2025. Her fourth collection focuses on living with mental illness and drug dependency issues. One of the poems in this collection, Who speaks to us, was published in the anthology, Entangled Stanzas - Bridging Science and Poetry, Scottish Poetry Library, Dec 2024.Tough topics, however, the writing stems from over 30 years of experience working as a health professional and educator in palliative care, paediatrics, family counselling and women’s health. This has included the publications of academic journal articles in the fields of oncology and palliative care.
Heather began writing at a very young age, her first poems being published in school magazines, and her first song performed at the local school concert at the age of 8. She has enjoyed the great privilege of being mentored by writers in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia and was fortunate to complete her Graduate Diploma in Professional Writing at Victoria University in the late 1990s, under the tutelage of Susan Hawthorne. In this period, Heather edited a book published by Lothian Books 1998, entitled Different but the Same – Young people talk about living with serious illness. This book resulted from working with 27 young people who were living with chronic and/or life limiting illness. A highlight of this project was working with the late John Marsden, who graciously provided a foreword for the publication.
Having spent half her life in Aotearoa New Zealand and half in Australia, Heather now lives on the Victoria coast with her two cats who display very little interest in her poetry but provide support nonetheless.
PUBLICATIONS:
- A Random Caller - Cancer Poetry Cameron H. 2023. Ginninderra Press, Adelaide SA.
- ‘Who speaks to us’ In Entangled Stanzas - Bridging Science and Poetry Scottish Poetry Library, Dec 2024
- Writing creatively about cancer. Cameron H. Axon Creative Explorations. Dec 2022:12(2): Axon Creative Explorations Journal
- Different but the Same - Young People Talk about Living with Serious Illness. Cameron H (Ed). 1998. Lothian Books, Melbourne.