Laura Hansen, Minnesota Poet, Author and Writer

SPOTIGHT ON LAURA HANSEN, MINNESOTA POET, AUTHOR,WRITER

Laura Hansen is a poet, writer, artist and workshop leader. She lives by the river in Little Falls, MN, a place that inspires her work. Laura is passionate about words and has won many accolades in the literary world. She is a member of the League of Minnesota Poets, a regular contributor to regional magazines and literary journals, participated in poetry exhibitions and has self-published three chapbooks. Her poetry has been featured on Lakeland Public Television and Northern Community Radio. She's the winner of the 2015 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition.

Laura's winning book, "Midnight River" ( N.F.S.P.S. Press), published in 2016 was a book finalist for the 2017 Midwest Book Awards.

Laura's newest book "The Night Journey" (River Place Press) 2020 

features image rich lyrical poems, and stories offering  readers portals into the imagined worlds of myths, nature and human potential. "The Night Journey" gives voice to these stories of landscape and place that have stirred her heart. Through a Five Wings Arts Council Individual Grant Laura was given the opportunity to study in Santa Fe with Travel Writer Santa Fe and MISAWest Santa Fe. Entranced with the architecture and artwork of the area, Laura found many of her explorations ignited stories and poems laying the groundwork for her new book.     
To order a copy http://www.laurahansenbooks.com/store/p1/the-night-journey.html 

Read more of Laura's work from her Slow Living Journal Entries at  
http://www.laurahansenbooks.com/newsslow-living-journal.html and/or
 https://www.facebook.com/LauraHansenPoet/

Enjoy one of Laura's recent poems 
"Do Not Delay This Wakening"

I need right now
for the river
to go storming past
like a bear fresh
from its den,

to see it open
its dark maw
and roar,
releasing all the
pent-up frustrations
of winter
and of home-staying,

to pound its furious
big clawed paws
down on the weakening
ice, to break us free
of winter's stasis,

to trundle away
with this unholy
pandemic riding
on its back.

Laura L. Hansen
March 25, 2020
poem reprinted with permission of the author