About Laura Apol

Laura Apol, Ph.D., is an associate professor of literacy and curriculum in the College of Education, Department of Teacher Education, and is a core faculty member in African and African American Studies, Asian Studies, the Center for Gender in Global Contexts, Women in International Development, Peace and Justice Studies, and the Center for Advanced Study of International Development.

Laura served as poet-laureate for the Lansing area from 2019-2021. She is the author of several prize-winning collections of poetry: Falling into Grace; Crossing the Ladder of Sun; Requiem, Rwanda, drawn from her work using writing to facilitate healing among survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and translated into Kinywarwanda under the title, Emwe N’imvura Irabyibuka (Even the Rain Remembers; Mudacumura Press, 2015); Nothing but the Blood, and, most recently A Fine Yellow Dust.  She is a two-time winner of the Oklahoma book Award, a silver-medal winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award, a finalist for the Annual Midwest Book Award, and a finalist for the Lascaux poetry prize.

Laura has published more than 50 articles and book chapters in the areas of literacy education, children’s and young adult literature, and arts-based research methodologies. Her recent publication, Poetry, Poetic Inquiry, and Rwanda: Engaging with the Lives of Others (Springer International, 2021) focuses on arts-based inquiry, international collaboration, and the therapeutic uses of writing in response to trauma.

An award-winning teacher, Laura conducts creative writing workshops internationally, nationally, and locally.