Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is a librettist, an award-winning literary artist, director, performer, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. She authored Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019) (translated into German, Berichtenswert, Elif Verlag, 2020), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt & Co., 2023), which won Best Nonfiction Book through the Texas Institute of Letters (2024). Mouton contributed writings for Glamour, Texas Monthly, and ESPN’s Andscape.
This 3-time TedX presenter and international performer has been the keynote speaker for the Texas Library Association and the Texas Association for Literacy and Education, among others performing for crowds upwards of 37,000 people- including the Leipzig in Autumn Festival as an ambassador for the City of Houston.
A former Resident Artist with American Lyric Theater, Rice University, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture, her upcoming works include a children’s book (Hush Hush Hurricane, Kokila), an opera at The Kennedy Center, and an immersive experience on the Black Maternal Health crisis called Call Me Mother which opens fall 2025