Airdate: June 2023
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Laurie Kuntz is an award-winning poet and film producer. She taught creative writing and poetry in Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines. Many of her poetic themes are a result of her working with Southeast Asian refugees for over a decade after the Vietnam War years. She has published two poetry collections (The Moon Over My Mother’s House, Finishing Line Press, and Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press), and three chapbooks (Talking Me Off The Roof, Kelsay Books, Simple Gestures, Texas Review Press, and Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press), as well as an ESL reader (The New Arrival, Books 1 & 2, Prentice Hall Publishers). She has poems appearing in The Gyroscope Review, Third Wednesday, Roanoke Review, The Raven’s Perch, One Art, Poetry Breakfast, Panoply, The Southern Poetry Review, Rise Up, Literary Mama, and many other magazines. Her poems have appeared in Black Lives Matter anthologies, and Ukraine War anthologies, and Blue Light Press Anthologies, and Moonstone Anthologies. Her poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and one Best of the Net. Her chapbook, Simple Gestures, won the Texas Review Poetry Chapbook Contest and Women at the Onsen won the Blue Light Press Chapbook Contest. She was editor in chief of Blue Muse Magazine and a guest editor of Hunger Mountain Magazine. She has produced documentaries on the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Law, and currently is an associate producer for Strangers to Peace, an award winning documentary on the Colombian peace process and reintegration of guerrilla soldiers in Colombia. She is the executive producer of an Emmy winning short narrative film, Posthumous. Recently retired, she lives in an endless summer state of mind. Visit her at: https://lauriekuntz.