LPR Selects New Editor

…I think it has a lot to do with growing up and hearing the different accents, the different diction…I think that that had a huge effect on my writing style and how I pay attention to people’s voices…(JMWW, 2010)

Laura Shovan

Laura Shovan grew up in a bi-cultural family. Her parents lived in Thailand before she was born, and she spent her first five years living in America with two Thai “brothers.” That marked the start of a lifelong interest in the voices and views of others, something that will, no doubt, come in handy as she begins work as our new main editor and poetry editor.

So will her lifelong love of literature. By second grade, she had written a short story, “Snow Flurry,” worthy of publication in her school’s PTA newsletter. By college, she was ready to study dramatic writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and, some years later, poetry with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Program.

And so will her interest in fostering the talents of others. As a high school English teacher, Shovan worked as the adviser of an award-winning newspaper and literary magazine. She also coordinated the student-award-winner poetry readings at both the 1996 and 1998 Dodge Poetry Festivals. After moving to Maryland in 1999, she obtained funding from the Maryland State Arts Council Arts in Education (AIE) Program to conduct poetry workshops for school children and has also conducted adult writing workshops for Write Here, Write Now.

Shovan will take over editorial responsiblities at LPR with the “Make Believe” issue, due out in June 2011. However, she as already become involved in LPR activities. She will meet with editorial board members November 30 and be in electronic contact with the outgoing editor, Michael R. Clark, as he assembles the “Water” issue, due out in January.

In the meantime, take a look at her literary work. Shovan’s poetry has appeared in Lips, The Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, the Paterson Literary Review, the Global City Review, the Little Patuxent Review and Poets Online. She has recently published a chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone, which was the inaugural winner of the Clarinda Harriss Poetry Prize and is available on Amazon.com. And check out her blog, Author Amok, “a frenzy of writing, teaching and parenting.”