Writing Your Memoir: 5 Questions for Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton

“Even Mythology can be a playground for brand new thought. And if that is possible, there I’d no space that’s off limits.” -Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton

Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an internationally-known, multi-hyphenate literary artist, director, performer, critic and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. She is the author of the 2019 poetry collection Newsworthy with Bloomsday Literary (and its German counterpart Berichtenswert with Elif Verlag), which was a finalist for the The Writer’s League of Texas Book Award. Her poems have garnered her a pushcart nomination and been translated across multiple genres and languages. She has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN’s The Undefeated. Currently, she is a Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater, Rice University, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture. For more information about Deborah, check out her website: https://www.livelifedeep.com/.
 

On Wednesday, October 26th, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is teaching a class for the WLT called “Memory or Myth: Making Your Memoir Memorable. In this class you’ll learn how to write a memoir that blends powerful memory with compelling literary elements.

Here’s what Deborah had to share with us:

Scribe: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you write? How did you come to writing?

Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton: I write everything from books to poems to operas and stage plays. I started writing at a very young age and never stopped.

Scribe: In your own work, how do you approach overcoming the challenges that come with writing, be it writer’s block or craft or business-related challenges?

DM: I don’t believe in Writer’s block. I think it is our own expectations getting in the way of the work. I think, in general, letting the work tell you what it wants to be helps to avoid a lot of problems- business and craft wise.

Scribe: Has there been a moment of epiphany in terms of your work, when you thought, “This is it! Now I know what I’m doing?” How long did that feeling last?

DM: I think I get that feeling with every project I work on. It’s satisfying and very brief. I tell people, I am often the most in love with the last thing I wrote.

Scribe: What piece of advice do you find yourself giving to writers again and again?

DM: Don’t stop because people don’t get it. Some of my most inventive and successful ideas defied logic and my friends hated them at first. Sometimes you are the only one with the vision.

Scribe: What is one thing that people will take away from this class?

DM: Even Mythology can be a playground for brand new thought. And if that is possible, there I’d no space that’s off limits.

Thanks, Deborah!

Click here to learn more about Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton’s upcoming class.

 

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