Born in the UK, raised in the US, Laura Jan Shore immigrated to Australia in 1996 and has lived on the Far North Coast of New South Wales ever since. Her previous poetry collections include Breathworks (Dangerously Poetic Press, 2002) and Water over Stone, IP Picks Best Poetry 2011, Interactive Press. Her YA novel, The Sacred Moon Tree (Bradbury Press, 1986) was nominated for the Washington Irving Children's Book Award. Her work has been published in anthologies and literary journals on four continents including Aesthetica, Magma and The Best Australian Poems (2013). Her readings have included Poetica on Radio National, The Brett Whitely reading series, the Hudson Valley Writer's Center in NY, Perth Poetry Club, the Sydney Writers Festival, Byron Bay Writers Festival and Queensland Poetry Festival. She's held residencies at New Pacific Studio, New Zealand, KSP Writers Centre in Perth, Varuna in the Blue Mts. and the Poets on Wheels tour, 2003. President of Dangerously Poetic Press, she co-edited 13 books and has facilitated poetry readings since 2000. She has been teaching creative writing and poetry since 1980. After her husband's sudden death, she felt compelled to piece together the mosaic of contradictions-his enigmatic character and the love that saw them through: marriage, divorce, five years on separate continents and then re-marriage for an additional thirteen years. To write about this, she needed support. She enrolled in the MFA program at Pacific University, Portland, Oregon where she had the privilege to work with some of her favourite poets such as: Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, Sandra Alcosser, Kwame Dawes and Ellen Bass. In June, 2019 she received her MFA in Creative Writing and completed the manuscript for Afterglow. Poetry brings solace and renewal in a chaotic world. Laura will continue to encourage local community building through poetry. Her dream is to find fresh ways to connect poets and poetry lovers so they might nourish and sustain each other in a global community.