Pushcart Prize nominee Laura E. Garrard is also an artist and CranioSacral Therapist on the Olympic Peninsula. Her debut book, Paddling the Sweet Spot Between Life and Death, will be published by Finishing Line Press in spring 2026. She writes a cancer poetry series, Poetry That Fits, on Penn Medicine’s OncoLink.org. She served as editor and proofreader for Country Music Foundation/Vanderbilt University Press, Thomas Nelson, and Rutledge Hill. Garrard earned a master’s in news-editorial journalism with literary and women’s studies focuses. Her poetry appears in journals like Bellevue Literary Review, Amethyst Review, The Madrona Project, and TulipTree Review.