Laurel Ann Bogen is a poet, teacher and performance artist who has called called Los Angeles home since birth. She is the author of eleven books of poetry and short fiction including Washing a Language, Psychosis in the Produce Department: New and Selected Poems, and The Last Girl in the Land of the Butterflies. She is also a founding member of the celebrated poetry performance ensemble, Nearly Fatal Women, and received the Outstanding Instructor of the Year award from the Writer's Program at UCLA Extension.