One Memory at a Time: Memoir with Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton

Description: This 4-week generative series will help writers transform their memories into universal and impactful storytelling. From fine-tuning details to unlocking forgotten memories, this series will help you turn your everyday experiences into stories worth retelling. Join Houston's Poet Laureate Emeritus and award-winning memoirist Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton for a four-week dive into writing your next memoir.

Click Here to Register by September 27th. 

4-week Workshop, October 2nd to 23rd 

Workshop Length: 2 Hours 

Max Participants: 10

Cost: This workshop is provided for free with support from our donors. Donations are appreciated.

*Note: Registration does not guarantee attendance. 

*10 attendees will be selected by drawing and notified by September 30, 2024.

* Torch workshops are open to Black women and BIPOC womxn writers.

Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning author, playwright, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. Praised by the NY Times as an artist who “defies categorization”, her genre-bending works span from stage to page. She is the author of Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019) which was translated into German (Berichtenswert, Elif Verlag, 2020), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt, 2023), and an upcoming children's book, Hush Hush Hurricane (Kokila Books, 2025). Honored as part of Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class, she has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN's Andscape, to name a few. She’s penned stage works including Marian's Song (Houston Grand Opera), Atlanta: 1906 (Atlanta Opera) & On My Mind (Opera Theater St. Louis). Serving as Playwright/Director, she produced The World's Intermission, commissioned by Performing Arts Houston (Jones Hall), which was adapted for film, and Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson, a choreopoem (Stages Theater) which made the cover of the NYT Culture section. Her recent memoir, Black Chameleon, which was awarded Best Nonfiction Book award by the Texas Institute of Letters (2024), examines Black womanhood through afrofuturistic mythology. Stories that Mouton later adapted into a storybook opera (Lula, the Mighty Griot, HGO) and an independent short film (Headache & Heartthrob).  A former Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater, Rice University, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture, her upcoming projects will debut at The Kennedy Center and American Lyric Theater. She resides in Houston, TX.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats. 

This program is made possible with support from the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division, the Burdine Johnson Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Amazon Literary Partnership.