Born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Valerie Laken has lived and worked in Moscow, Prague, Krakow, Madison, Iowa City, and Ann Arbor. She received an MA in Slavic Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. 

Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Chicago Tribune, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Antioch Review, and Meridian. Her honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, two Hopwood Awards, and an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories. 

Her first novel, Dream House, was inspired by her own experience buying and remodeling a home in which a murder had occurred. She is also the author of the short story collection Separate Kingdoms. 

Laken has taught at the University of Michigan and Carthage College, and is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where she teaches creative writing.

More information abut Valerie and her work can be found at:  http://www.valerielaken.com/.

This event is free and open to the campus and community.