Deatri

When Deatri was six years old, her mother was told that because of Deatri’s dyslexia, she’d probably never learn how to read. At that time it was recommended Deatri partake in a specialized reading curriculum. Unbeknownst to Deatri’s parents, this additional help their daughter would need was actually Deatri being taken out of reading class to sit in the hallway with a tape recorder for a teacher. When Deatri entered the fourth grade at a different school, her parents were terrified to learn their daughter couldn’t read. For years she’d been reciting the bedtime stories to her mother from memory instead of actually reading the written words from the pages.

My have times changed. In 1999, Deatri was a technical writer at a telecommunications company with dreams of joining the publishing world as a content editor and author. Mind made up, she returned to school and soon started as an editorial intern at Third World Press, Inc., one of the oldest independent, African-American owned publishing houses in the world. Shortly thereafter, her skills were recognized, and she became a more permanent fixture at Third World Press, Inc. Though Deatri believes in Third World Press’s mission, fiction is her true love, so in 2004 she began focusing her editing skills on fiction.

Dozens of manuscripts later, she still hasn’t figured out she wasn’t supposed to learn how to read. February 2006, the second half of Deatri’s dream came true with the release of her debut novel Caught Up. In 2008, Deatri won the coveted Emma Award for Best Steamy Romance of the year with her title Whisper Something Sweet. Currently, she is reading, editing, conducting writing workshops, and writing her next novels.