We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natashia Deon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Natashia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I was thrown out of a courtroom. I was eighteen years old. That’s when I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative path.
That morning, I was in court with a friend, being her moral support during her small claims action against an abusive ex-boyfriend and I was so emotional as she tried to explain the abuse. He kept interrupting without repercussion so I interrupted him. Worse, I couldn’t shut up.
I was given a warning by the judge to sit and be quiet if I was to remain in the courtroom, not once, not twice, and by the third time, I had to be escorted out of the courtroom. But before I finally left, I planted one foot at the door and turned around to the judge and pointed my finger to him and over the heads of all the people in the court gallery including my friend and proclaimed, “I will never be this powerless again to help the people I love.”
Six months later I was enrolled in law school. But it was that day in the courtroom, after I was given the final push out of the door, that I knew I loved drama. 10 years later, I had accumulated enough heartbreak and trauma of courtroom battles, negotiations, and client care, to need an outlet and became a novelist.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a novelist, a two-time NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, a Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Nominee in Fiction, and a practicing criminal attorney.
My critically acclaimed novels are THE PERSHING and GRACE. GRACE was also named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and awarded Best Debut Novel by the American Library Association’s Black Caucus.
I have been awarded fellowships by PEN America, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Prague’s Creative Writing Program, Dickinson House in Belgium and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. I was also a Pamela Krasney Moral Courage Fellow in 2018 and in that role, founded REDEEMED, a two-year criminal record clearing and clemency project that paired professional writers and lawyers with those who have been convicted of crimes.
I am a professor of creative writing and law at UCLA and in the Master’s of Fine Arts program at Antioch University.
My personal essays have been featured in The New York Times, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, American Short Fiction, Buzzfeed and other places.
I was a 2017 U.S. Delegate to Armenia as part of the U.S. Embassy’s reconciliation project between Turkey and Armenia in partnership with the University of Iowa.
I am a mother. A wife. And, grateful.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I knew that is a privilege to write. To be an artist of any kind. To be able to focus mentally, to have the money to invest in the materials of your art practice–even if that’s disability income, or parent’s money or job money.
It is a privilege to have the time to write. We all have drains on our time–family, school, work. And look, for the majority of artists, no one is waiting for the thing you are creating. The deadline or delivery date you’re working against is one you have created in your mind–literally. You are trafficking in a dream and that’s beautiful. It’s hope. You carry hope. And it is a privilege to. It is also a victory to carry whatever you have past that imaginary finished line–done, sold, represented, etc.
So first, a resource is knowing you are privileged. Even if you feel or are poor.
Second, you’ll need to figure out how to create a sustainable artist’s life.
Grants, family, friends, sure. But you’ll need to figure out how to talk about your creative work as if you are a museum curator and not an artist. I know, crazy right? And how? I really like a curriculum by Creative Capital. You can find them online and you don’t have to be a member to take their online class on creating a sustainable arts career. You should set aside a few days and take the class online. Do the exercises. Because what you’ll create is not only a rough draft describing the work you’re doing, but you’re creating the foundation of a living document that you’ll revise throughout your career and will use to apply for grants and fellowships.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The mission driving my creative journey has changed over my life. There was a time when I just wanted my work to be seen and heard. I soon discovered, I needed to eat. My family needed to eat, needed shelter and such. So I needed to make money. Still do. I wanted to be able to make a living from the sale of my art. Then my mission was to teach others…but it’s always been that. Is still that. I’ve been teaching professionally now in universities and in programs for over a decade in addition to practicing law.
But now, more than ever, I want to set a good example for my children. My daughter is typically abled, my son is disabled. I like to read to him. My daughter is an artist too. An illustator. I like to watch her draw and paint. I also want her to build an art career that can support and sustain her. She’s here: avalauryn.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://natashiadeon.com
- Instagram: natashiadeon
- Facebook: natashiadeon
- Other: https://AvaLauryn.com
Image Credits
William Barclay
Casey Curry
Lindsey Adler
Ralph Palumbo