Laurel Snyder

Georgia Connections

• Atlanta, Fulton County

Notes of Interest

Laurel Snyder is a poet, essayist and occasional commentator for National Public Radio who is best known for her novels and picture books for young readers. She makes her home in Atlanta. In 2010, her book "Any Which Wall" was chosen for inclusion on the Georgia Center for the Book's inaugural list of "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read."

Laurel Snyder was born in Baltimore in 1974. In 1992 she came to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and fell in love with the South. A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and a former Michener-Engle Fellow, she moved to Atlanta in 2003. She has published poetry and essays in the Utne Reader, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Revealer, Salon and the Iowa Review. She also has delivered occasional essays on NPR "though most of the time I'm a mom," she says.

She has written two books of poetry, "Daphne & Jim: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Biography in Verse" (2005) and "The Myth of Simple Machines" (2007). She also edited a book of essays, "Half/Life: Jew-ish Tales from Interfaith Homes" (2006). Her picture books include "Inside the Slidy Diner" (2008) and "Baxter: The Pig Who Wanted to be Kosher" (2010). Her three novels for young readers include "Any Which Wall" (2010), "Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains" (2010) and the forthcoming "Penny Dreadful."

Further Reading

Laurel Snyder Web Page