Baker Artist Portfolios

Laura Laing is a creative nonfiction writer, whose work often explores stories through the lens of abstract mathematics and her upbringing in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. A recent graduate of Goucher College’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction, she also holds a degree in mathematics from James Madison University. Her essays have been published in The Common, The Rumpus, Creative Nonfiction, Consequence, and Full Grown People. "Your Leaving," published in the 10th Anniversary issue of Consequence: An International Journal on the Culture of War, received the Best Essay award in 2019 from the American Society for Journalists and Authors (ASJA). Laura's long-form, literary journalism was published in Baltimore’s City Paper and recognized with an A.D. Emmart Award for Maryland journalists for "Raising a Glass," her longform piece about Leon's, the oldest gay bar in Baltimore. In the fall of 2018, she worked as a mentee with experimental essayist, Erica Trabold (Five Plots) through AWP's Writer to Writer program. She is currently working on a memoir (Three) that weaves narrative structure with explorations in abstract mathematics.
 
Laura's long-form, literary journalism was published in Baltimore’s City Paper and recognized with an A.D. Emmart Award for Maryland journalists for "Raising a Glass," her longform piece about Leon's, the oldest gay bar in Baltimore. As a freelance journalist, her work has appeared in USA Today, Parade, The Advocate, Parents, Parenting, and Southwest Airline’s Spirit magazine.

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She lives in Baltimore with her wife, while their daughter considers a major in economics at the University of Virginia. Raised in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Laura has recently become the fifth-generation owner of a 1787 log home in the Shenandoah Valley, where her parents are from.