My Personal Favorite with Laura Van Prooyen

A Poetry Blog

This blog asks poets to answer this two-part question:

At this moment in time, which of your poems is your personal favorite, and why?

Laura: My current favorite poem is "Contemplating the Afterlife from a Chicago Hotel" recently published in Southeast Review: https://www.southeastreview.org/single-post/43-1-laura-van-prooyen.

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Laura: These days, I'm doing a lot of grief work. By which I mean, I'm leaning into the lessons that grief offers, whether I like it or not. Having lost two family members in the last three years, I am coming to see that getting real with mortality is teaching me how to live better. I wrote "Contemplating the Afterlife from a Chicago Hotel" shortly after losing my brother, and then I worked through revision after revision for about two years. This poem was hard-won in all the ways. When I read it now, my brother's words make him feel closer, as if he's giving me advice to have some fun. This poem is in my forthcoming chapbook, Sorry, We No Longer Offer Bereavement Fares, coming out with FlowerSong Press in 2026.

Bio:

Laura Van Prooyen’s forthcoming chapbook, Sorry, We No Longer Offer Bereavement Fares, will be published in 2026 by FlowerSong Press. Her most recent book of poetry Frances of the Wider Field (Lily Poetry Review Books 2021) was a Finalist for both the Texas Institute of Letters Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards. She is also author of Our House Was on Fire, nominated by Philip Levine, awarded the McGovern Prize (Ashland Poetry Press 2015) and the Writers’ League of Texas 2015 Poetry Book Award, and Inkblot and Altar (Pecan Grove Press 2006). She is co-author, with Gretchen Bernabei, of Text Structures from Poetry—a book of writing lessons for grades 4-12 (Corwin Literacy 2020) and a recipient of an Artist Foundation of San Antonio Individual Artist Grant in 2019.

Laura has over 25 years experience teaching poetry and writing in a variety of academic settings including: Miami University of Ohio, Dominican University, Henry Ford Academy: The Alameda School for Art + Design, Chicago Public Schools, Del Valle High School, and University of Illinois at Chicago. She also facilitated therapeutic writing sessions for soldiers with PTSD in an Intensive Outpatient Program for three years at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Having been raised in a tight-knit Dutch community just outside of Chicago, Van Prooyen now lives in San Antonio, TX. She earned a B.A. at Purdue University, an M.A. at The University of Illinois at Chicago, and an M.F.A. in Poetry at Warren Wilson College. Laura teaches as visiting faculty at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, serves as the Managing Editor of The Cortland Review, works with Mission Belonging facilitating free online writing workshops for healthcare providers and military families, and is the Founder and Director of Next Page Press. You can find Laura’s books here.

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