Attending the Deep Water Literary Festival in Narrowsburg, held from June 20 to 22, was an awakening to how a small community of writers, readers and artists can transform perceptions.

With both amazement and pride, Aaron Hicklin, owner of One Grand Books in town and founder of this event, announced, “It is the biggest turnout.” This was in fact the lucky seventh year for the festival.

I was fortunate to attend and can attest to a full house, in which a stool was kindly provided behind the rows in the Tusten Theater for me. This particular segment was titled, “Becoming,” and featured the celebrated authors Susan Choi, Geoff Dyer and Douglas Stuart.

Each of these authors, with their stories, took us on a journey called life; although rough around the edges at times, there was always a ray of hope drawing us in to know more.

Clearly the passage of time offered the necessary inspiration that each of their books shared. Whether it was Japan for Choi, England for Dyer or Scotland for Stuart, the terrain is lined with the path to change for the better. Choi read from her first few pages, and you could just feel the setting from the description. 

Then there are the comedic angles to the idea of aquatic adaptations for Dyer, which he dubbed “little aquariums.” And Stuart who gave a full take on growing up in poverty in which he was told, “If you are cold, run faster.”

In a very touching and revealing summation each of the authors shared a special thought:

For Choi it was to write about the impossibility that everyone expects you to write about, almost like writing after everything happens. It started as a short story and graduated into a novel.

Dyer weighed in with the motivation of telling the larger story, in which he shared growing up in a house without books—and the state wound up sending him off to Oxford anyway.

Stuart also said he grew up in a house that didn’t have any books. What he did was write what he felt.

The reflections they all shared were based on the following books they each wrote, all of which provided a nostalgic look into their own Becoming what they are today—best-selling authors.

Susan Choi: “Flashlight”

Geoff Dyer: “Homework: A Memoir”

Douglas Stuart: “Shuggie Bain”

Attending community events and visiting local stores in the area brought me to One Grand Books, that unique business of a successful small, private bookstore, which has eluded many towns.  

The deepness of Narrowsburg is not just that part of the river, but in the support of everyone who lives there as well as those who come to the events.