Laura Shovan is a children’s author, educator, and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. Her work appears in journals and anthologies for children and adults. Laura’s award-winning middle grade novels include The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Takedown, and the Sydney Taylor Notable A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi. Laura is a longtime poet-in-the-schools and recently joined the faculty at VCFA’s MFA program in writing for children and young adults. Her story “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bimah” appears in Coming of Age: 13 B’nai Mitzvah Stories (Albert Whitman, 2022).