VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
DEON: The most unusual place I’ve had a reading was in an alley in Echo Park. When I arrived, dressed in my six-inch heels, mini dress, and trendy big purse on my shoulder, it was about noon. I was preparing to go into the back entrance of the venue which happened to be in an alley when the bouncer at the door held up his hand and said, “Can I help you?” I said, “Sure, I’m one of the readers. I was told I was first.” At which point he pointed to the microphone on a stand directly behind me and I almost knocked it over with my purse when I twirled around to face it. Across the alley there were two vendors–my only audience–and one was selling books and the other one cookies. They looked across the alley at me with a certain level of pity and comfort, at which point I dropped my purse, took the mic, and read.
An L.A. attorney by day, Natashia Deón is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from Yale, PEN Center USA, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and VCCA. Recently named one of L.A.’s Most Fascinating People by L.A. Weekly, she has an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside, and is the creator of the popular LA-based reading series Dirty Laundry Lit. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, The Rattling Wall, B O D Y, The Feminist Wire, Asian-American Lit Review, You. An Anthology of Second Person Essays, among others.
Come see Natashia read at Book Show in Highland Park on Saturday, January 10 at 7pm.