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 New York 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 contributed writings 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), and Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson, a choreopoem (Stages Theater) which made the cover of the New York Times Culture section. Her recent memoir, Black Chameleon, which was awarded the Carr P. Collins award for Best Nonfiction through 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.