Laura Maffei is the author of the poetry collection drops from her umbrella and was the founding editor of American Tanka. Her recent fiction has appeared in The Westchester Review, La Piccioletta Barca, The Halcyone, Sangam Literary Magazine, Touchstone Literary Magazine, and Evening Street Review. Born in Brooklyn and raised on Staten Island, she studied creative writing at Binghamton University and received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.