Hi. My name is Lauren.
I’m a writer, editor, and teacher. I live in Portland, Oregon. I have an MFA in Nonfiction Creative Writing from Portland State University. I founded and served as the editor-in-chief of Kithe Journal while it was in print.
I was born a wordsmith, as surely as the night is dark and the day is long. I write to discover myself and what I am made of, and to make sense of a bewildering world. Some days I feel as though my body is made not of bone and muscle and blood, but of landscapes. I feel sure that if someone peered into the center of my chest they might see the gentle slopes of a dark green valley, a mountain for a heart.
A few things I like are: the word susurration, the first bracing sip of a gin and tonic, the sound of the ancient bells at the school by my house, that moment when you first see your friends waiting for you in a booth at the bar, writing workshops when it’s not my day to share, clear running water, my family’s long running Sunday dinner tradition, dance parties of all varieties, herons, Cedar’s heavy evening sigh, mountain goats, walking big country with my dad, getting caught in a rainstorm and hiding out under a pine tree, the slow push of a French Press’ handle, the first shoots of spring, the cry of a red-tailed hawk, the end of a run, listening to the rain on the roof of the car in the seconds right after you’ve turned the engine off and before you start moving to get your stuff and go into the house.