Laura Van Prooyen

Laura Van Prooyen is a poet, educator, and co-author of Text Structures From Poetry, Grades 4–12: Lessons to Help Students Read, Analyze, and Create Poems They Will Remember. She is the author of four poetry collections: Sorry, We No Longer Offer Bereavement Fares, Frances of the Wider Field (a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry), Our House Was on Fire, which was nominated by Philip Levine and received the McGovern Prize and the Writers’ League of Texas Poetry Book Award, and Inkblot and Altar. Her poems have appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Boston Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Southern Review.

Van Prooyen has more than two decades of experience teaching poetry and writing in academic settings, including Miami University’s low-residency MFA program, Dominican University, Chicago Public Schools, Del Valle High School, and Henry Ford Academy: The Alameda School for Art + Design. She is the Founder and Director of Next Page Press, serves as Managing Editor (and later Founder/Director) in roles associated with The Cortland Review and related editorial work, and facilitates free online writing workshops for healthcare workers through the nonprofit Mission Belonging.