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Deborah has published three collections of poetry:  "Far From Home," (Lapwing, Belfast, 2004), "Eating Thistles," (Smokestack Books, Ripon, 2019), and "Dàin nan Dùil," (CLÀR, Inverness, 2019.) 

Her stories and poems have appeared in a number of periodicals and anthologies in the United Kingdom and Ireland, among them Cyphers, P.N. Review, The SHOp, Stand, and the 2011 edition of "Poems of the Decade," an anthology of "highlights from the past ten years...of the Forward Poetry Prizes."

In 2019, Deborah won the Federation of Scottish Writers Vernal Equinox Competition (Gaelic Poetry), and won third prize in the inaugural Sister Margaret MacDonell Prize in Gaelic Poetry. In 2017, Deborah won the Duais Bàrdachd MacDhòmhnaill Shlèite, for the second year in a row. In 2016, she won the Wigtown Poetry Competition (Gaelic section) and the Duais Bàrdachd MacDhòmhnaill Shlèite.  She also was a runner-up in the Words in the Waves Competition (Galway).  In 2015, she won the Words on the Waves Award and the Wigtown Poetry Prize (Gaelic category). In 2014, she took second prize in the Gaelic section of the Baker Prize, and was one of four Highly Commended prize winners in the Gaelic section of the Wigtown Poetry competition.  In 2013, she won the Baker Prize for poetry in English.

The following is a complete list of the journals in which Deborah's poems have been published: Acumen (Brixham), Agenda (Mayfield, East Sussex), Causeway/Cabhsair (Aberdeen), Cencrastus (Edinburgh), Crannog (Galway), Cyphers (Dublin), Flaming Arrows (Sligo), Fortnight (Belfast), the Frogmore Papers (Lewes), Gutter (Glasgow), The Interpreter's House, Irish Pages (Belfast), New Edinburgh Review (Edinburgh), New Statesman and Society (London), Northern Lights (Hanover, New Hampshire), Northlight (Glasgow), Northwords (Dingwall), Northwords NOW (Dunblane), Oasis (London), Orbis (Nuneaton/Wirral), Other Poetry (Newcastle), Pennine Platform (Bradford), The Poet's Republic (Stonehaven), Poetry Salzburg Review (Salzburg), Poetry Scotland (Callander), Revival (Limerick), The Scotsman (Edinburgh), The Shop (Schull), Southlight (Annan), Stand (Leeds), Steall (Inverness), The Steeple (Cork), the Stony Thursday Book (Limerick), Verse (St. Andrews), The Warwick Review, and Writing Women (Newcastle).

Her work has also appeared in the following anthologies: "The Golden Goose Hour: the First Shore Poets Anthology" (Taranis Books), "The Forward Book of Poetry 2010" (Forward/Faber), and "Poems of the Decade; an anthology of the Forward books of poetry 2002-2011" (Forward/Faber), "Words on the Waves Anthology 2015," (Wordsonthestreet).

In 1986 three of her stories were published in "Faber’s First Fictions: Introductions 9". Her fiction has appeared in three other anthologies: "Soho Square" (Bloomsbury), "Scottish Short Stories 1991" (HarperCollins), and "Short Circuits" (Virago). Her stories have also appeared in Chapman (Edinburgh), Company (London), Cosmopolitan (London), Critical Quarterly (Manchester), Krino (Dublin), Passages (Belfast), P.N Review (Manchester), Stet (Cork) and West Coast Magazine (Glasgow).

She received a Bursary Award of £5,000 from the Scottish Arts Council in 1986.