Pat Laster

Pat Laster, Benton Arkansas, is a former teacher of choir, general music and gifted ed classes, and a retired church musician. She is poetry editor for Calliope: A Writer's Workshop by Mail, and writes a general-interest column for the weekly (Amity AR) SOUTHERN STANDARD. Her interest in writing was stoked by the graduate course, Writing Across the Curriculum, taken during the mid-1980s.

She began her writing career as a poet and gradually fell into short stories and essays. Her first novel, A Journey of Choice, was published in September, 2010, and a sequel, Her Face in the Glass, in September, 2015. In 2016, she published Hiding Myself into Safety: Short Stories & Long Poems with an Occasional Essay. In the summer of 2019, she published "A Compendium of Journal Jottings: A Sourcebook for Writers. She is working on a memoir and a poetry collection.

She raised a grandson from age 8 months to 25. After his years as a Henderson (HSU) Reddie, he now lives in Hot Springs AR. Pat lives in the Salem community of Saline County in the Depression-Era family home she's named Couchwood. In the 13 years she's lived there, she's had the hardwood floors redone, new carpet, new windows (30 of them) installed and all the exposed wood in addition to the windows, painted a stark white. Plus, new ceilings in the two front rooms, and the 70s-era paneling painted.

She enjoys reading, Facebook and working in the yard. She collects pear-motif-ed objects, Fostoria American crystal and Avon Cape Cod glassware. Her prose blog can be found at pittypatter-pittypatter.blogspot.com. Her poetry blog is pittypatter.blogspot.com. Her website is www.PatLaster.com

She is owned by a male cat, Greye. She is a United Methodist and a Democrat. She belongs to a writers group called LBJD&P, which forms the initials of the first names of the group members.

In the fall of 2019, she will begin online studies for an MFA from the University of Arkansas at Monticello AR.