Laura Read is a poet and educator living in Spokane. She is the author of Dresses from the Old Country (BOA Editions, 2018), Instructions for my Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012; winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry), The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (2010; winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award) and, most recently, But She Is Also Jane (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023; winner of the Juniper Prize).
Recipient of a Washington State Artists Trust Grant, a Florida Review Prize for Poetry, and the Crab Creek Review Prize for Poetry, Laura teaches and presents regularly at literary festivals and conferences throughout the Northwest, such as GetLit!, Write on the Sound, Litfuse, and the Port Townsend Writers Conference. She served as Poet Laureate of Spokane (2015–17).
Laura teaches writing and literature at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University.
More of Laura's poems are available at Pictures of Poets.