Antonia Deignan is a mother of five children by choice, a dancer by calling, and a writer by necessity. She was born on the east coast, but lived primarily in the Midwest, where she danced with multiple dance companies and raised her children. She opened her own dance studio and directed a pre-professional dance company before a bike accident wish-boned her path, and her identity. She has multiple publications in magazine and online formats. Her memoir,Underwater Daughter, will be published in 2023.
coming spring 2023
“Underwater Daughter is a must read for anyone who has ever suffered abuse at the hands of someone they love–or loved someone who has.” – Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Perennials
“Underwater Daughter starts with disjointed pieces of prose and poetry violently breaking across the page like smashed glass. As you compulsively turn its pages, the writing gradually becomes more lyrical and coherent, the jagged shards subtly glued together to produce a beautiful and colorful mosaic out of all the broken bits. It is a writing style that perfectly suits its underlying subject. This is the story of an abused child, running from her terrors as an adult, finally made whole through self-reflection and a searing honesty. A brave, moving, and compelling work.” – Richard C. Morais, international bestselling author of The Hundred Foot Journey
FEATURED WRITING
Considering my essence
I was fixing a light bulb. It was a tiny one, no larger than my thumb. It lived in a salt rock lamp. The salt rock lamp was as big as a watermelon on the heap of summer season’s bounty, piled up in neon green with darker green stripes, the dumpster-ish cardboard boxes welcomed [...]
Creation
Can we awaken to the mystery of the unknown? When the eye of the storm pauses to sing, and blankets of sand lift from stillness, and death awaits in graveyard cleaves, in ancient times and tomorrows; the silence wishes to teach us (oh wonder), the soil, the water, the larger than, more than human [...]
Your books are here
“Your books are here,” my husband said from the dining room, his second office by way of Covid. I thought, ok, from the kitchen where I was working on whatever I was working on (writing, emails, promoting, thinking). I buy a lot of books online. Sometimes I buy them from Amazon, sometimes from independent bookstores. [...]