Laura Read is the author of Dresses from the Old Country (BOA Editions, 2018), Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012, and the chapbook The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (Floating Bridge Press, 2011). She served as Spokane's poet laureate from 2015-17, and she teaches English at Spokane Falls Community College.