Despite an award-winning 30-year career, Laurel Ann Bogen-poet, performance artist, teacher, author of ten books including Washing a Language (Red Hen Press, 2004) and The Last Girl in the Land of the Butterflies (Red Wind Books, 1996)-might be mistaken for an overnight sensation. The arc of her writing career began during the 1970s, through years of harrowing confinement inside the back wards of psychiatric hospitals. She carved her way back to life through poetry and, along the way, has influenced decades of LA-based poets, students, lovers (and even non-lovers) of language with her unmistakable and unmistakably powerful voice. Bogen has taught in the UCLA Writer's Extension Program since 1990 and is also a founding member of the celebrated poetry performance ensemble, Nearly Fatal Women. She lives in Los Angeles.