Laura Bandy, English faculty at Spoon River College, is eagerly awaiting the publication of her second book of poetry. Monster Movie is scheduled for release by Gold Wake Press this December. Her chapbook, Hack, was published by Dancing Girl Press in August 2021.
A favorite in the classroom, Bandy has taught at Spoon River College since 2018, and was the recipient of the 2020 H. Truman Standard Award for teaching excellence in 2021.
Bandy attended the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers PhD program from 2009 to 2013, where she received the Joan Johnson Poetry Award. In 2018, she won first prize in the ‘Trio of Triolets’ contest judged by Allison Joseph, and received third place in the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award/ Illinois Emerging Writers Competition that same year. She has had work published in Soft Skull’s Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry, Ninth Letter, Sin Fronteras, River Styx, Typo, Moist Poetry Journal and The Laurel Review among others, and currently has poems in Midwest Review, The Florida Review, and Hobart.
Bandy is from Jacksonville and loves the cornfields, but wishes Illinois had mountains (or even hills!) for snowboarding purposes. She loves spending time with her husband, Tarl, stepchildren Titus and Ashton, and seven cats (four inside, three outside). She is a twin, and librarians are her heroes.
