VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
DEON: The most unusual experience I had at a reading was the first time I read for Vermin. I had planned to read an essay for the reading because at that point, I hadn’t read from my manuscript for Grace in over a year. It had been rejected multiple times by publishers and I had mostly given up. But, just before I came to Vermin, I felt inspired to read from Grace. To see if she was still alive and to breathe life in her. By the end of that next week I had two offers from publishers. How a person might interpret any of this is their own thing. What’s for sure for me is that Vermin on the Mount is a place for words to come alive. Or, come alive again.
Natashia Deón is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel, Grace (Counterpoint Press), and is the recipient of a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices fellowship. Recently named one of L.A.’s “Most Fascinating People” in L.A. Weekly‘s People Issue, Deón is a lawyer, law professor, and the creator of the popular L.A.-based reading series Dirty Laundry Lit. Her writing has appeared in American Short Fiction, Buzzfeed, The Rattling Wall, The Rumpus, The Feminist Wire, Asian American Lit Review, and other places.
Come see Natashia read at Book Show in Highland Park on Friday, April 14 at 7:30pm.